In 1966, two Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, outlined a political strategy that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a national system of “a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.”
1. Healthcare – Control healthcare, and you control the people.
2. Debt – Increase the national debt to an unsustainable level. By that means you are able to increase taxes, with the result of producing more poverty.
3. Poverty – Increase the poverty level as high as possible, then give them handouts to survive. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
4. Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives. (Food, Housing, and Income)
5. Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with the support of the poor.
6. Education – Take control of what people read and listen to. Take complete control of what children learn in school.
7. Religion – Remove the belief in the God from the Government and schools.
8. Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves. Create a police state.
There is a derogatory political term (since the mid-1800s) for people who are duped by propaganda they don’t fully understand and participate in political movements about which they’ve been deceived: “Useful idiots.”
Instead, the Bible calls us to reflective evaluation of what we are hearing (Acts 17.11) and wise action based in the truth about matters (Rom. 16.19; Eph. 5.15). As believers, we need to be wise participants in the political system, not “useful idiots.”