Conditioning is more powerful than direct teaching or persuading.
Millennials were the most schooled generation in human history. They enjoyed the least unstructured time. They were controlled, directed, and dictated to in detail nearly every hour of nearly every day from birth to their mid-twenties. They never had to learn how to be bored, solve problems with their mind alone, create their own meaning, goals, and structure. They never knew freedom or privacy as default conditions of life.
They are now ascending into the dominant role of social, economic, and political influence. Gen Xers are pretty passive and nihilistic. Boomers are extremely bossy and entitled.
I hope there is a sufficient number of people who value freedom over force to bring an end to the current totalitarianism that is growing in nearly every country. But it is very possible it is too late for the current generations. Maybe they never stood a chance. A people conditioned to find obedience to incompetent, vicious, arbitrary authority will tolerate a lot of it. Many will even demand it.
But even if it’s too late for anyone 20 or older, it’s not too late for the next generation.
Even if we cannot act or speak in a way to break the mental bondage of the bootlickers of today, we can build the mental, social, and economic tools to leave our kids so that when this generation wanes in power and they take the lead they will have something to work with.
We can uncondition them. Deschool them. De-slave them. Give them maximum mental and physical space so that they grow up in freedom as much as possible. People who grow up in freedom find tyranny to be unnatural and intolerable. That does more to stop it than preaching and political movements.
Create the conditions of freedom for yourself and your generation, sure. But realize it’s usually too late to unplug someone from the matrix of control beyond their 20’s. Whatever you create, keep in mind it might not be realized until the next generation. Set them up for autonomy.