We don't live in a police state, Sweetpea.
Neither are 'we' in any more of a mess than at any other time in history, different messes for different eras and we survive. However most of us are not in any particular mess & certainly not all the time.
I got what you said previously, children are perfectly innocent until they absorb influences but surely that is normal. Happened to us. Everyone has to learn to live in the world alongside a variety of others and to understand how things work.