In recent years, much has been written and revealed about the so-called Deep State (aka the permanent bureaucracy and its stooges in elected office). This is nothing new – many writers have revealed this institution in governments through the ages and around the planet. Science fiction writers in particular have used fiction to explain (and usually to condemn) this institution. Or is it better to use negative terms like cabal and gang?
Are we not correct in saying that the permanent bureaucracy and the powers it wields are nothing more than a perversion of government processes and an active participant in denying many of the various human rights that governments supposedly exist to protect? That even in an evil organization, there are degrees of evil. Degrees that the deep state demonstrates?
But there is another aspect which is getting more attention these days. We call it the “hidden state” and believe it has at least two elements.
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The Price of Liberty 
Banning children from social media?
Australia has taken a drastic step, passing a law (and apparently enforcing it) to prevent people under age 16 from using social media. Now, even more are arguing that DC needs to also enact such a law. For the entire Fifty States and territories.
Not much has been published about this in the past six or so weeks, or since the new regime started taking over DC. But it has been reported that twelve States so far have restricted teen access to social media and many more have seen legislation introduced to do so. Three States’ legislation have been blocked by courts. The most recent (reported on WTVR-TV) is Virginia, where lawmakers have passed a bill limiting social media use for those under age 16.
We can understand the desire to protect young people – although 14 and 15 year olds are hardly “children” (except legally) in most countries. (No, they are not fully developed mentally or physically, but they are generally more than capable of identifying right from wrong. Regardless of upbringing.) And we certainly comprehend the emotional and social dangers that social media presents. And how it can sometimes lead to physical threats, both from predators and cruel peers.
But such bans rarely work as intended. Censorship is censorship – even when it is applied to older “children.” Yes, there are parents who are very poor parents: every week we see where a mother or a father has been found abusing their children, or even killing them or allowing them to be killed. But horrific as this is, and no matter how many laws have been passed (and enforced) by American governments, it does not end.
Curbing the abuse of social media, like so much else in childhood and adolescence, is clearly the purview of the parents of the children – either natural or in loco parentis. If there is a problem with it, it is the parents that need to be disciplined: first taught to properly care for their children and raise them right. And second, to hold them accountable for what the children they are responsible for do something harmful.
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