Enabling the Big Lies and Myths

Like a blight on burgeoning brains
the pervasive suppression of honest reflection
                            unbridled inquiry and healthy dissent

thrives behind the shield of assumed scholastic virtue
that runs cover  for the program that seeks to prevent
                                          genuine erudition and wisdom;
thrives  behind the sacrosanct guise
              of an ostensibly enlightened curricular system;

       behind that peerless indoctrination agent
       masquerading as education   with its dedication
                     to teaching   what to think instead of how;

       behind that go-to tool for inculcating rules
                     and instilling conditioned submission
       as young minds are drilled in gov-approved schools

              where conformity enforcement
              and the ingestion of unquestioned information
              are the primary goals of so much robotic
                                   orthodoxy-propping regurgitation

in schools   where lip-service praise
is paid to the laudably liberal  if in-theory-only principles
              of uncorralled curiosity and free-ranging thought

       while in practice these are seen as signs of defiance
              as the penned-in sheep are routinely taught
                     the enormous rewards of blind compliance

              alongside its inverse  the steep cost of deviance
                            from belief in the big lies and myths
                                   that serve  to legitimize state crime

— the lesson of lessons being the blessings of obedience
       and the curse that awaits  those who think out of line.