Going Gently

There are certain terms I bristle at instantly. I don’t need to hear the qualifiers; I don’t need to listen to the explanations as to why someone thinks it’s a brilliant idea, or why it needs to be implemented immediately because I know how it will end. It will end as it always does, with violence and death, and the destruction of a way of life that flawed as it might be is still the best the world has to offer.

One of the terms that cause my neck hairs to stand on end is one that has been making the rounds lately, and that is, we must educate those unwilling to comply with the edicts of power-mad pencil pushers, whether those edicts are constitutional or not.

We can no longer agree to disagree; we can no longer have contrasting opinions, if you don’t agree with pretend totalitarian despots, you must be educated! We will show you all the ways you are wrong, reaffirm all the ways we are right, and if you are still unwilling to see the glories of our edicts, we’ll throw you in jail as though you were a common criminal.

Even though you’ve broken no law, even though you’ve committed no crime, you chose to disregard the proclamations of bureaucrats whose edicts you should respond to as to the voice of God Himself. You should know better, but that’s okay, your overlords are merciful and kind, and are willing to carve out some time from their busy schedule to educate you.

This is the same sort of verbiage used when it came to those pesky Christians back in the day. We were backward and uneducated, we were primitive and archaic, but in their limitless magnanimity, they would take the time to educate us. Of course, you have a right to think for yourself, as long as you think the right thing. Yes, believe whatever you wish as long as it falls within the guidelines of what you are allowed to believe. It’s not so complicated, is it?

Now I know what you’re thinking, and what you’re thinking is unacceptable. It’s for your own good that we are stripping you of your freedom. It’s for your own good that we are treating you like subjects, even though we’re not living in a monarchy.

We are watching a nation for which past generations bled and died for be turned into a wasteland before our very eyes, and I, for one, will not roll over and die. I will not submit to tyranny, even in the smallest things, because if I submit in the little things, greater things will be demanded of me.

They will push only as far as they are allowed to push. They will push until they start to feel resistance, and until it starts to hurt their bottom line. Be judicious in every action you take, whether it’s where you shop from, what you watch on television, what bank you use, what online commerce platform you frequent because it’s the only way you can voice your displeasure short of violence. Whatever you do, do not go gentle into that good night—rage against the dying of the light. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.