The student strike and protest of school children against One Nation and its Leader, Pauline Hanson, has been rightly condemned by well-meaning Australians as containing unacceptable violent political rhetoric from some attendees.

It raises the question whether it would be appropriate to counteract this left-wing spectacle with a dignified rally led by conservatively-minded school children willing to reassert the values of freedom and democracy – values that were brutally attacked by the hordes of progressive left-wing students who skipped school for this disgusting display.

Surely, the horrific scenes involving teenagers screaming for Hanson to be hurt or killed, were truly confronting…

The spectacle on our streets was deplorable because it revealed how impressionable children can be manipulated, over the course of their academic life, by ruthless left-wing radicals into supporting anti-capitalistic and progressive projects.

Unfortunately, in Australia, teenagers are increasingly subject to a politicised education system that indoctrinates young impressionable minds with left-wing ideas and, hence, they are likely to slavishly adopt the rhetoric of their progressive teachers.

A Woke education has enabled educators and activists to manipulate children in their quest to overturn the existing political, social, and cultural order.

This is how we end up talking about students who legally should be in school, but are cajoled into protesting against a political party, the policies of which they have little knowledge of. One wonders how many of these students would ever be able to explain the meaning of ‘racism’, ‘fascism’, and ‘antisemitism’ beyond what they have been told by their teachers. After all, that is what indoctrination is about: it is the inculcation of beliefs which are accepted as true and cannot be allowed to be contradicted.

Of course, ideally these protests should not be allowed because, in Australia, we expect our high school children to be in school to study mathematics, reading, and writing.

However, it could be argued that, in some circumstances, not involving violent rhetoric, a rally like the one we have witnessed last week might be a justifiable occurrence.

For example, in the United States, a peaceful protest by school children may be protected by the First Amendment to the American Constitution which, in its relevant part, states that: ‘Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.’

Freedom of speech includes ‘symbolic speech’, namely action that, although it does not involve verbal communication, conveys a message which is understood by its recipients.

In 1969, the American Supreme Court decided in Tinker v Des Moines that even non-verbal communication is protected by the free-speech provision. That case concerned children who wore a black armband to school, in violation of a clearly articulated school policy, to excoriate the prosecution, by the United States, of the Vietnam War. Justice Fortas, writing for the majority, stated, ‘We do not confine the permissible exercise of First Amendment rights to a telephone booth or the four corners of a pamphlet, or to supervised and ordained discussion in a school classroom.’

Of course, the rally last Thursday does not fit Justice Fortas’s reasoning.

This is because Australian school children, fomented by progressive politics of the left-wing variety, chanted slogans which included hateful remarks and threats of violence – language which is not protected by Australia’s hate speech legislation.

Moreover, it is unlikely that the teenagers fully comprehended the impact of their action. This is because the brain is still developing during the teenage years, making it difficult for school children to weigh dilemmas and to make political decisions. For this reason, in an Australian context, any dissent on issues relating to Aboriginal dispossession, Critical Race Theory, gender transitioning, affirmative action, vaccine mandates, pronouns, climate change, and other fashionable, but politically naïve developments, would be absorbed by school children as unassailable gospel.

In other words, it is doubtful that the teenage age group, cynically recruited by the left-wing organisers of the anti-One Nation protest, has the competence to reflect on the vital concepts that support a democratic form of government. And yet, the progressive left argues in favour of reducing the voting age to 16 years of age because they see it as an opportunity to harness extra votes in an election.

To counterbalance the spectacle of last week, conservatives need to embrace a policy of ‘progressive conservatism’.

Most people might think that ‘progressive conservatism’ is an oxymoron. However, conservatism these days needs activist behaviour and ‘progressive’ approaches to secure its survival and to deal with the unpalatable consequences of teenagers demonising One Nation and its leader Pauline Hanson.

‘Progressive conservatism’ may thus involve the kind of activity the left is fond of, but without the alarming rhetoric. For example, this activity could be a non-threatening Australia-wide march to resurrect the values which have served this country well.

Of course, this will only become realistically possible if enough willing teachers can instil critical thinking into their pupils. This will only happen if our high school children become ‘slow believers’, a phrase coined by William Graham Sumner in 1905 in his book Folkways to describe the ability to think critically, assess and examine the propositions they hear about in school. He said that people who possess the ‘critical habit of thought’:

…cannot be stampeded by stump orators and are never deceived by dithyrambic oratory. They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.

Conservatives need to organise a progressive conservative school rally in this country to counter the lunacy of the left. Of course, it would mean that participating school children would be taken out of the school system for a day – not an ideal outcome – but it is one of the better ways to counteract the inane activities by the vile left in this country.