Collectivism 133, Part 1: Lucifer, the Son with Morning Wood

PACE Revised 2002

Welcome back! Today, I’m excited to introduce the PACEs (Packets of Accelerated Christian Education). I’m going to briefly explain PACEs and how they work, give an overview of “collectivism,” and then begin my review of Collectivism 133. This course concerns utopias, philosophers, and political movements, all filtered through Donald Howard’s white supremacist and Christian Nationalist worldview.

**If talking/thinking about the physical manifestations of angels and demons and demonic possession is triggering, go forth with caution. This PACE is absolutely bananas.

PACEs all look like some variation of this:

Exhibit 58

PACEs are typically 30-32 pages long. Each PACE has approximately 3 check-ups that are evenly dispersed among the 30ish pages. Then there’s a self-test, and then a test. The primary critique of ACE is that the PACEs rely solely on rote recall. Read and regurgitate.

Students of ACE don’t have many, if any, opportunities to explore topics like Collectivism on a deeper level. At no point in this senior government class is the student asked to do a paper on a collectivist movement of their choosing. They aren’t asked to give a report on a chapter of Das Kapital, or about Adam Smith’s “invisible hand.” This leaves the student feeling like an expert in political theory. In reality, all this course contains is Republican talking points. It aims to produce confidently incorrect ultra-national zealots - children made in Donald’s own image.

Boiled down, Collectivism is one of Donald’s fascist manifestos, rewritten as a child’s fill-in-the-blank activity book.

Students, K-12, work through PACEs by themselves at desks that look like this:

Exhibit 59

I can still smell this room.

The furniture behind the students is the “scoring table,” where students score their own work (except the test). All students have an American flag and a Christian flag at their desk. When a student is ready to score their work, they raise their American flag, and the monitor calls on them to go to the scoring table.

ACE schools don’t have classes or teachers (for the most part), they have 55 minute “periods” overseen by a “monitor”. The monitor is typically an uneducated parent of a student, and they get paid pennies to essentially preside over a day-care. They don’t need any qualifications to teach, as all of the teaching is done through the PACEs, written by our boy Donny. Likewise, many states have ZERO rules and regulations regarding what a curriculum should and shouldn’t teach. These are Texas regulations for example:

Accreditation: optional

Registration: no requirements

Licensing: no requirements

Approval: no requirements

You can use this helpful tool to find out about private school regulations in your own state.

Alright, let’s get to it.

Collectivism is a senior government elective. In this course, Donald is going to demonize various philosophers (like Ex. 3), fail to explain “collectivist” movements (like socialism), and forget women exist for long periods of time. As in his manifestos, Donald will make the case that only Christian Nationalism can bring about any lasting good in the world.

A “collectivist” or “collectivism” is a derogatory term thrown around by John Birch Society freaks and friends. It’s double-speak for ‘any group that isn’t strictly far-right and ultra-national.’ The Church, Republicans, Christians, and white supremacists, those aren’t collectives, but many individuals working together as if they are a collective. Which is better for unexplained reasons. Liberals? Totally a collective.

Right-wing nuts use “Collectivist” in the same, undefined way they do “Humanist,” “Communist,” “Atheist,” or “Homosexual.” These words just mean ‘something I can’t define (and wouldn’t if I could), but hate with every fiber of my being.’

This Exhibit greets the student on page 1. Notice how the tone of this text perfectly matches that of Donald’s manifestos:

Exhibit 60

THE FALL OF SATAN

Human dissatisfaction

Throughout human history, mankind has repeatedly attempted to create a perfect society. Every would-be social planner, however, has his own unique conception of what constitutes that perfect society. Equally as strong as the utopian’s unquenchable desire to remake the world is his demand that everyone else be forcibly jammed into his narrow Procrustean mold. Never does a man set up a utopia for himself alone, but for a community of beings. To some degree, therefore, all attempts at societal perfectionism involve the collective man and are examples of collectivism.

Collectivism 133, page 1

Those that have been reading my posts probably recognize this Exhibit for the projection that it is. Every accusation against collectivist movements is a confession of Donald’s stated goal, creating a Christian American utopia. I’d describe straight-white-Christian-land owners as somewhat of a “narrow Procrustean mold.” Of course, he never directly confronts this issue.

Instead, he tackles the problem in a round-about way:

Exhibit 61

The failures of utopias

Human governments and social organizations are not in themselves evil. Both kinds of institutions are needed by man and ordained by God.

[…] any human endeavor instigated without the direct agency of God is fallible and ultimately doomed to failure. The only earthly “utopia” to which we may look with complete expectation of success is the government which will be instituted under the direct and personal Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Collectivism 133, page 2

When Donald describes “the direct and personal Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he isn’t being abstract in the sense that ‘there is nothing for us to do in the meantime.’ He’s being literal. Donald truly believed that the Moral Majority and Christian Reconstructionists were going to take over America and trigger the second coming of the Christ (see: Project 2025). After successfully taking control of America, Donald fancied he and his pals would do a sort of hand-over-the-keys-to-the-city thing with Jesus Himself “at or around the year AD 2000.”

I hate continually teasing this, so I’ll proffer you a demonstration. Here’s a (tiny tiny tiny tiny) taste of the delusions this man expresses in all earnestness. This is pulled from a manifesto chapter titled “IN THE LAST DAYS. . .”

Exhibit 62

When will this happen?

All the evidence points convincingly to a time at or around the year 2000. As already pointed out, a host of Christian organizations and leaders have this year as their target. In addition, all the “signs” (fulfilled prophecies) also point to A.D. 2000.

World Awakening, page 174

If you need more of Donald’s megalomania in your life, you can check out this post:

1b. Before the Donald Crows

Going back to the rote recall conversation - each PACE course is formatted slightly differently. History and Science PACEs typically have somewhere in the ballpark of a a paragraph or two, to a page of text, followed by a section of fill-in-the-blank, call-and-answer questions. Here’s some questions that follow the paragraph on page 1:

Exhibit 63

Answers are:

(1) utopia [or] society

(2) c. a community of beings

(3) collective

Collectivism 133, page 2

Just insanely dull. Questions (2) and (3) are pretty much the same. Not that that matters much. A common tactic employed by students is to read the questions before hand, and then scan the text for the answer, rending any pretense of deep learning moot.

Getting back to the text:

Exhibit 64

The problem lies in the fact that in every instance of abortive utopian activity, prideful homo sapiens has defiantly shaken his fist of clay in the face of Almighty God and blasphemously proclaimed, “I will create the perfect world where You have failed.” The reverberating “I will” echoes and re-echoes across the pages of recorded history as an ever-present indictment of humanity’s inherent sin nature. Man’s evil imagining that he, better than God, could direct the functioning of the world, is not original with him. One greater than man, indeed, the highest of created beings, anticipated every attempt of humans to “do their own thing.”

Collectivism 133, page 2

We’ve seen this so many times in his manifestos, where his projection of someone else’s motivations/thoughts becomes this thing he begins to quote.

Like, “I will create a perfect world…” and “do their own thing.” He typically goes on to quote his own projection to extract some universal truth like “The reverberating “I will” echoes and re-echoes across the pages of recorded history.” In this case (he hasn’t gotten there yet), but he is quoting from Isaiah 14:12-15, where God charges Satan with envy and destructive ambition. Nothing about Lucifer starting a collective.

This still doesn’t satisfy the universal conclusion that ““I will” echoes and re-echoes across the pages of recorded history.” Like all of his hot-takes, Donald will never substantiate this idea. One example (the literal Devil) becomes “an illustration of a trend” (Ex. 30).

I sincerely doubt that desiring a better world disqualifies one from heaven, but it sure throws a wrench into supremacy-based power structures.

This next Exhibit is the combination of two paragraphs, separated by some questions that aren’t worth our time:

Exhibit 65

The angelic realm

Angels, like the human race, were the specific creation of God; but, unlike men, they neither reproduce nor die. Since their creation, the angels have always been; but there was a time before they were.

[…]

The Bible gives us the names of only three of these angelic beings—Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Michael is specifically referred to as an archangel, and it has been suggested that all three might have been originally given that title and position. It is possible that each of these possible archangels was given charge over one third of the angels of heaven.

Collectivism 133, page 3, 4

Angels and demons are about to get extremely literal.

**If this stuff is triggering, go forth with caution. This shit gets my blood pumping every time I read it. I remember being a child and stricken with terror by the fact that some of my thoughts could be coming from the literal archenemy of God and humanity, the Devil. Or that an angel and a demon were physically fighting for my soul¹. Or that literal demons could possess me.

This gets weird:

Exhibit 66

Lucifer, the son of the morning

Angels were created stronger and wiser than men, but less so than God. The archangels, Michael and Gabriel, probably possess greater power and glory than the average angels. Chief among all the angels, however, was Lucifer—the highest of all created beings. Even now, only the triune God is stronger than Lucifer. Even the archangel Michael fears to challenge him in his own strength (Jude 9).

Collectivism 133, page 4

Congratulations, Gabriel, on your promotion to archangel.

Here is Jude 9, where the archangel Michael is scared of Lucifer, I guess:

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Jude 9

If I, lil ole me, shall have no fear because the Lord my God is with me, than what the fuck does an archangel have to be scared about?? Checking in on the opinions of others about this verse, it seems that no one agrees with Donald about Jude 9. Michael and the Devil were in a tizzy, and Michael played his trump card “Dad says you’re in trouuuuublllllle.” If you’ve read my prior posts, you’re used to Donald extracting four words from the Bible to justify various cruelties (like withholding food from the starving). When it comes to Donald interpreting the actions of spiritual beings, the vibe is similar. Michael didn’t “bring against him a railing accusation,” so he must have been quaking in his angelic boots!

And that, folks, is the limitation of Donald’s imagination.

I want to point out that five times in the first four pages of his foundational thesis about “collectivism,” he’s used the qualifiers “might have been,” “it has been suggested,” “probably,” and he said “possible” twice in one sentence. Yet, this uncertainty does not deter him from plowing through with his Biblical literalism. We see this all the time in his manifestos where his feelings inhibit his ability to provide factual information that’s been grounded in peer-reviewed study.

Seriously. None of this pigshit is peer-reviewed. I knew that from reading his manifestos, but I reached out to ACE anyway and this was the response:

Exhibit 67

Of course I had more questions. When I responded to confirm that the PACEs are in no way peer-reviewed, I got an automated response and no follow-up. I called a few days later and got a sweet southern lady who explained to me the same thing in the similar wording “We produce and write all our material in house.” I asked her how to get into touch with someone on the writing/production staff. She told me that she can’t give out any sort of information like that because everything they do “is proprietary business we’ve been developing over the last 55 years.” I asked specifically for the email of someone on the science-team (I assumed there was one) and her southern sweetness evaporated into cold annoyance.

I’m not ready to publish all the details about the ACE corporate structure, but I have only found one person that is currently a “science editor” at ACE. The rest of the people I have found are Christian college graduates with business degrees, or have job titles that include “public relations” or “ministry outreach” or “tech support” in the description.

Here’s Donald explaining who contributed to writing the original drafts of the PACEs, mentioning someone in particular that we’ve probably all heard of:

Exhibit 68

The entire core A.C.E. curriculum for all grade levels in all subjects was written by separated Christians with a Biblical philosophy of life with Scriptural content where appropriate, Exposure to sub-Christian values is not considered relevant to a Bible based on education. It has been taught by Bill Gothard that Jesus had 60 ideal character traits. Such similar character principles, as can be taught from the printed page, are built into the curriculum unit at a time, so that a child starting at the first unit of material and advancing all the way to graduation would have studied the principles of 60 character traits 12 times repetitiously applied will reinforce Bible principles into the life with the highest capability.
Rebirth of Our Nation, page 297

THAT’S RIGHT BABYYYY! If you went to an ACE school, raper Bill Gothard decided which Scripture verses you memorized in your PACEs, and how they’re to be interpreted. For 13 years of my childhood, pedo Bill Gothard had a direct hand in molding my relationship with authority, the Bible, and Jesus.

*for the record, “where appropriate, Exposure” is not my typo - I triple check these Exhibits to make sure I don’t include my own typos

Exhibits in my post, Before the Donald Crows, show Donald demanding that your children look at him with “A feeling of deep respect and honor mixed with wonder, awe, and love..” he also claimed that your children be ready to give their lives for Donald’s cause. That shit comes from the mind of a pedophile.

Fuuuck Bill Gothard, fuck Donald Howard, and fuck ACE.

From the prior Exhibit, “separated Christians” includes the likes of Bill Gothard, Tim Lahaye, David Barton, Henry Morris (father of CReatI0n sCIEnCe), Jack Hyles (prolific Child abuser), Bob Jones Senior and Junior (of the historically racist Bob Jones University), and Jerry Falwell (of the historically racist Liberty University). Those are some of the the people that students in ACE schools are directly influenced by.

The more I read Donald’s work, the more I love these verses:

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Mark 9:42 Matthew 18:6

In Collectivism 133 Part 2, we’ll see angels and demons wrestle, women betray all of man-kind (because they are just so silly and stupid, of course /s), and revisit an old Exhibit in new light.

1. At some point, I was taught that I had to pray for my angel to beat my demon. That my angel relied on my prayers to beat my demon. For a kid, that’s fucking terrifying. I’d have nightmares on days I forgot to regularly pray for my angel. Maybe needless to say, but I said the sinner’s prayer a few thousand times as a kid, just in case plan (A)ngel-beat-Demon didn’t pan out.