Question.

Answer.

No.

What? You want more detail. Ok…

It’s really a no-brainer. Revolutionary movements like communism and Nazism, which sought to overthrow the status quo and create a new society, have always placed huge importance on cultivating a young following. I consider the green movement, particularly those sections of it that can be described as the Green religion, as a revolutionary movement too, because its main aim is to implement socialism under the pretence of saving the world from an environmental catastrophe.

There are several reasons why children and teenagers are so valued by utopian authoritarians:

1. As the philisoph Whitney warbled, children are the future. Invest in indoctrinating them now and your investment will last a lifetime, certainly outliving the less enthusiastic elders.
2. Children’s minds are more malleable and they are more impressionable, making them more receptive and accepting of your propaganda.
3. Peer group pressure helps to reinforce what the adults instil.
4. Children are (sorry, children) ignorant and naive, having neither the sufficient education nor life experience that make adults more difficult to scare, persuade or bullshit into submission and belief.
5. Children have an energy and enthusiasm, which older people often lack.
6. Teenagers go through the proverbial rebellious stage, where they question their parents and other conventional sources of authority. This makes them very useful for the said revolutionary movements, whether fascist or socialist, which need to destroy the old, more conservative way of life so as to create a new social order according to their design.

If you’ve read your modern history you are no doubt aware of the above; if you are curious, there are many good books out there which discuss both the role played by young people as early supporters of Nazism and communism as well as the policies of the respective regimes – coincidentally (or not) very similar in nature – to lessen or eliminate traditional influences over young generations and substitute the state as the central presence in their lives.

In fairness, this is not a new concept either; as the famous Jesuit saying (later adopted as the motto of the “7 Up” documentary series) goes, give me a child until the age of seven and I will show you the man. Excuse the sexism, as the Jesuits were not in the business of educating ladies (hardly anyone was at the time); but the principle applies to all children, regardless of gender.

In the case of today’s footsoldiers in the Children’s Crusade against Carbon, the above points are enhanced by the fact that over the past several decades in the developed world students have been getting progressively more indoctrinated in the pieties of the increasingly political and politicising teaching profession.

Australian children might not know how to read and write and count well, as evidenced by our standards and results slipping in the international tables, but they have been surely immersed in the woke worldview pushed by the left-wing ideologues who now shape the curriculum and control the education.

Instead of the old Three Rs, the kids as early as mid-primary school are sure to be exposed to the new, more politically relevant version of Racism, Refugees, Reconciliation and Renewables, with an extra dose of (Gender) Reassignment thrown in. They have been well primed in climate catastrophism by now.

In our Age of Nonsense and Sensitivity (hey, Jane Austen, here’s a Millennial sequel for you), children also act as convenient human shields for movements and agendas. You seem like an asshole if you criticise a child (or even a teenager), particularly if that child, like Thunberg (at 16 arguably no longer a child though definitely not yet an adult), suffers from any physical or psychological conditions, or has been a school mass shooting survivor (like David Hogg; but not Kyle Kashuv, who holds unwoke political views) and os on.

It’s a pathetic and cowardly tactic, and it makes watching St Greta’s near-breakdown at the United Nations painful to watch. She is young and unwell and she sincerely believes that the world is coming to an end.

Education systems and mass media help swell the ranks of child crusaders but in case of the figureheads, it’s the parents, minders and strategists who should ultimately be held responsible for exploiting the most vulnerable.

Arthur Chrenkoff blogs at The Daily Chrenk, where this piece also appears.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.