At the start of the school year, people here have been widely complaining about the access-control regime at schools. About the searches introduced for children and their parents. And they are wrong to do so. First, school is not a sanatorium. Second, sanatoriums are next in line for the introduction of searches, more or less. And finally, third, searches should start from an early age. Children should get used to the world around them from their earliest years. So that it does not come as a surprise later.
Take us, for example — nobody searched us or frisked us at the school entrance. So what? We carried slingshots and tubes for spitting buckwheat porridge in our pockets. We also had foil-and-saltpeter rockets that flew amusingly around the schoolyard, releasing bluish smoke. Then we passed cassette tapes from one to another. The music on them, as we all know, was deliberately invented in the West to bring down the Soviet Union.
And what did we become in the end? Protesters, “drug addicts and prostitutes,” fugitives and other free-thinking citizens unwilling to obey stupid rules and regulations. Looking down on government agencies as if they were some kind of service staff. On those whom, you see, we hired, rather than those who were given to us from above.
And why is that? Because there was too much freedom. Complete disorder. And there were no searches.
So when they started frisking us, long since grown adults, and forcing us into line, we protested. And we still cannot calm down. We don’t like the fact that phones are searched, that people can be put under surveillance without a court warrant, that they intend to adopt a law on genetic registration. Nor are we happy about the other delights of totalitarianism. Nothing is ever good enough for us; we keep bringing up some human rights.
Children today will grow up differently. They will already be accustomed to it. And it will come in handy in life. A habit will form: upon entering any public building, be it an office, clinic or supermarket, you will hand your unlocked smartphone to the officer on duty for inspection. Without unnecessary words or instructions. You will face the wall, place your hands against it at the required height, palms up, and spread your legs as wide as possible. That takes practice too — you won’t manage to spread yourself out like that on your own the first time. At school, the inspectors will teach you — a couple of blows to the legs with their boots, and you’ll have a gymnast’s flexibility. Everything will be quiet, peaceful and calm. They’ll pat you down and feel you over. They’ll rummage through your bags, and if the phone is clean, come on in, dear patient, to see the doctor. Or to your workplace, if you happen to be the doctor yourself.
And there is no need to lock apartment doors at night either. What if they suddenly need to come in to conduct a search? Then you have to break the door down or cut it with an angle grinder. This way, those who are supposed to enter can simply walk in without obstruction. They do their state duty. The neighbors sleep peacefully, as if nothing had happened.
Just try doing things like that to today’s adults. They’ll immediately start shouting — lawlessness, arbitrary rule, dictatorship. That’s because they weren’t accustomed to it from childhood. They are extra trouble for the regime — until they understand what is what, you have to handle them carefully. Search some, but not everyone. Check some phones, but not all of them.
Those who grow up with this, however, will take the familiar procedure calmly, without surprise. Why be outraged by something that has accompanied you in life since you were in diapers? Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers lived this way — schools will, of course, tell them about that too. Everything is normal.
So don’t complain. A school shakedown is the foundation of a peaceful life in the future. It is akin to morning hardening exercises. And this approach will prevent children from ruining their own lives later, when they are adults. They have learned to walk in a straight line, carry out orders without complaint, and keep their mouths shut unless ordered to speak. They march wherever they are told. Which means they will never end up in prison. Unlike their parents with their slingshots. And you’re unhappy about it. Think about your children’s future, not yourself.
That, as far as I understand it, is roughly how those who devise all these current school rules and put them into practice envision a bright future. What do you think — will those scoundrels succeed?
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The opinions and assessments expressed by the author may not coincide with those of the Reform.news editorial team
