“Every tyrant must begin by claiming to have what his victims respect and to give what they want. The worst of all public dangers is the committee of public safety.”
— C.S. Lewis
In 2025, we are being told, once again, that it is for our own good.
We are told to obey the experts. To trust the committees. To believe that restrictions are signs of enlightened governance. But history tells another story: one where the language of safety becomes the camouflage of control. Where fear is not conquered but cultivated. And where God is replaced, not with reason, but with rulers.
We have seen governments lock us down, isolate the elderly, muzzle dissent, and silence the young — not with reasoned debate, but with edicts. Under the guise of public safety, we are being reshaped. Social cohesion is no longer built around families, churches, or communities — but around bureaucracies, panels, and platforms.
This is not safety. This is sedation.When Governments Say ‘It’s For Your Own Good. ' rest assured, it is probably not.
The religion of the day is not Christianity, not humanism, not even science — it is technocratic authoritarianism. It wears the white coat of the scientist, the comforting tone of the therapist, and the mask of democracy. But its goal is not to heal or help. It is to rule.
C.S. Lewis warned that tyrants would not come as monsters, but as messiahs. They will promise to protect us. But what they actually take is our ability to protect ourselves.
"Necessity knows no law" — and that is precisely the problem.
“It is under that pretext that every abomination enters. Hitler, the Machiavellian Prince, the Inquisition, the Witch Doctor, all claimed to be necessary.”
— C.S. Lewis
Today, we hear those same words again: “It is necessary.” Necessary to censor. Necessary to ban. Necessary to silence. Necessary to isolate. All in the name of safety. All in the name of the public good.
The passage of Online Safety legislation is the latest intrusion. It is no longer enough to have thoughts. You must have the correct thoughts. No longer enough to speak truth as you see it — you must speak only what is permitted. The so-called eSafety watchdog now claims dominion over the digital public square, with powers to remove what is “harmful,” “dangerous,” or “misleading” — terms so elastic they can stretch to crush almost anything.
Today, that might mean conspiracy theorists and online abuse.
Tomorrow, it could mean scripture.
Or satire.
Or a quote from a dead general.
"Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politicians."
— General George S. Patton
Patton’s blunt assessment rings loud in an age where spin trumps service, and power is the prize for those who can manipulate fear best. Politicians who once served the people now serve themselves, propped up by an elite class of permanent advisors, media gatekeepers, and digital overseers.
But it was Arthur Calwell, Australia's own former Labor leader, who saw it most clearly:
“You cannot fashion a new society by silencing voices, banning books, and training children to obey rather than to think.”
And yet that is exactly what we are doing. Schools train children in compliance, not courage. Algorithms guide teenagers toward curated truth. Churches whisper, rather than proclaim. And older Australians — who built this country with calloused hands and iron resolve — are treated as outdated relics, barely tolerated by the system they paid for.
And now, they silence the lambs.
A ten-year-old child, about to be married in a foreign country, may no longer cry for help online — lest that post be flagged, removed, or reported.
A sixteen-year-old Australian may be barred from the online world for “safety,” yet soon allowed to vote in elections they’re not permitted to openly discuss.
And the grandmother who questions it all is labeled a “risk” for sharing a clip, a quote, or an idea that hasn’t been approved.
“We do not lose our freedom in one dramatic moment. We lose it step by step, with polite applause.”
— Unknown
This is not a call to revolution. It is a call to remember.
To remember what free men and women sound like.
To remember what real safety is — the kind built on trust, truth, and transcendent values, not surveillance and slogans.
To remember that our rights are not granted by governments. They are granted by God.
Because when fear rules, truth dies. And when committees of safety take the wheel, history shows us where the cart will crash.
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