hen my sisters and I were young we didn’t drift off to dreamland with the exploits of David and Goliath or the brave Queen Esther ringing in our ears. In the absence of a scriptural orientation, we slipped off to meet the sandman with visions of the Snow Queen and the Ugly Duckling floating through our dreamy heads. And though I’ve since forgotten how Gerda got to the Snow Queen’s palace, and just what Chickabiddy Shortshanks said to the Ugly Duckling, I can still remember the delightful details of my favorite Hans Christian Andersen classic, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

You remember the story: Two traveling con men offer to weave for a vain, foppish emperor a set of clothes so fine and so delicate that anyone who is either “unfit for his office or stupid” is unable to see them. Then stashing the cash and expensive materials, the men proceed to energetically “weave” on their looms nothing at all, while duping the entire city into denying the evidence of their senses and agreeing that the nonexistent cloth on the empty looms is the most exquisite they’ve ever seen. Indeed, the emperor, rather than expose his apparent lack of savoirfaire, opts instead to publicly expose his royal self as he removes his clothes, dons his “elegant new suit,” and parades naked through the streets.

Such is the tremendous power of groupthink on a vulnerable ego. Such is the irresistible influence exerted by a decadent popular culture on those who crave the praise of their peers more than they value truth and self-respect. Such is the tyranny of “cool.”

We are daily overshadowed by the tyranny of cool. Our senses and sensibilities are bombarded with its unreasonable and degrading demands to wear it or watch it, sip it or smoke it, buy it off the newsstand or surreptitiously glance at it in the express lane. Whether we realize it or not, we are ceaselessly stalked by a seductive, tyrannical conspiracy of cool.

Paul discloses the nature of this conspiracy as he cautions: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12, NIV).

And Ellen White, my favorite inspirational writer, reveals its eminently successful strategy: “Through the medium of influence, taking advantage of the action of mind on mind, [Satan] prevailed on Adam to sin. Thus at its very source human nature was corrupted. And ever since then sin has continued its hateful work, reaching from mind to mind” (Review and Herald, Apr. 16, 1901).

Surely, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” It’s against a quintessential con man who promises to weave for us the most gorgeous apparel, then leaves us naked in the street. It’s against a consummate manipulator who understands far better than we the complexities of the human mind, and the power that one mind, or many minds under his influence, can exert over another—through intimidation, enticement, or an everybody’s-doing-it mandate.

And what is the ultimate target of this sophisticated satanic onslaught? The delicate, developing minds and hearts of our children, of course. Which is why, in contradiction to our culture, my husband and I are committed to imitating “the conditions chosen by the infinite Father” for His Son’s impressionable childhood—“a secluded home . . . sustained by honest, self-respecting labor; a life of simplicity; daily conflict with difficulty and hardship; self-sacrifice, economy, and patient, gladsome service; the hour of study at His mother’s side, with the open scroll of Scripture . . . the holy ministries of nature; the study of creation and providence; and the soul’s communion with God” (Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, pp. 365, 366).

As we imitate, we place our faith in the promise of One who is greater than all the satanic legions of the conspiracy of cool: “Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the Lord: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children’”—even from the pervasive tyranny of cool (Isa. 49:24, 25, RSV).

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Leslie Kay and her family celebrate the simple life near Chloride, Arizona.