Good morning boys and girls, my name is Mr. Melkor and I will be your Tyrannical Overlord. Ooops, that slipped out. Today I will be your teacher. I'm going to teach you a few things about one of your most beloved icons: school.
Everybody excited? Ready to have your eager young minds soak-in the knowledge? Okay, here we go.
Early on in the industrial age, as people streamed from the countryside to the cities the ruling elite had a problem: what were they going to do with all of these independent, hard working farmers to turn them into compliant factory working, tax paying slaves... oh, my bad, that was meant to be "workers".
The Germans, being quite efficient, figured it out first. They designed a new brainwashing and retraining center and called it a public school. Before long, the elites everywhere else copied this great idea. It was a formula for success: tell every family to take their precious children and bring them to school five days a week from a very early age until the day they were ready to go out and work. Every day the kids would sit in a neat row in a classroom where an authority figure, called a teacher, would tell them exactly what to do, what was right, what was wrong, what was important, what was not, who was a friend, who was the enemy, what they should want, what they should avoid, what was good and what was bad. All the bases were covered: from A-Z.
Decades went by and the brainwashing and control over the youth of the world was perfected. The trick was to make the slaves... oh, "students" and parents believe that all of this was being done to benefit them. Everyone, or almost everyone, bought into the system. And why wouldn't they? They didn't know any better. Through all of their formative years the schools had a captive audience. Both the parents and the children had been indoctrinated in the very same system.
Now, 150 years later, schools are still the same: the neat rows, the authority figure at the front and a school board on top to make sure everything goes just smooth as silk. Unfortunately, a new corrupting influence threatens the school system. It threatens to do the unthinkable crime of freeing the slaves. It's called the internet. It's a place where anybody with a computer can get access to learning and knowledge for free. They can do it from home. They don't have to be lined-up in a row in front of some half-assed teacher that spews the party line. They can self-direct their learning. They can, very worst of all, think for themselves. The horror!
That's it for today boys and girls. I hope you paid attention to Mr. Melkor's lesson. There will be a pop quiz on this material next week.
Class dismissed...