Like the man said in Se7en “It’s easier to beat a child than it is to raise it.”
You seem to have forgotten being a child. Do you remember the day of your 18th year when you stopped being a drooling vapid drone in need of the nearest adult to tell you how to live your life and you instantly sprang into wisdom and sentience and worthiness of human and citizen’s rights? I don’t. For my own part I remember a pretty seamless progression of ignorance towards knowledge and revision. I remember being a human from about the time I was 4. I believed some tings that were wrong and I didn’t understand some things, but that was the case when I was 25 as well. And I’m sure it still is.
We’re always changing always learning. At what point did I magically become an adult? What fact was added to my memory that changed me from a talking dog into a real live person? I hate the attitude people have towards children. It’s disgusting by and large.
The most intelligent hacker I ever met was 13 at the time and some adults can’t even manage their email. Antiquity is jam packed with children doing great and horrible adult things, from Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the child soldiers of today’s Africa and middle east, children are capable of more than we as Americans can fathom because we have a trillion dollar dumbing down effort well underway. We think Hannah Montana and Pokemon are the limits of their ability.
Children ARE little adults. Their brains are different, in progress, and flux but no less human for it. There is no child out there today that lacks an adult equivalent with full rights and protections. You ask me how many in depth conversations I’ve had with 11 year olds, and I say I have no idea, and neither do you because an intelligent child in today’s world probably has a fake identity. For all you know I am such an 11 year old.
I’ll go you one better, how many adults have you met that act like children? Should they be stripped of their rights? If so at what point, if not why not? Who decides? You? A judge? A priest? A boss?
Rights are worthless if selectively and arbitrarily applied. Just ask blacks and women and every other historically oppressed group.
The thinking that raising a child can’t be accomplished without a servant/master or owner/pet relationship dynamic is a deficiency of imagination if not an abundance of sadism and insecurity.
Much like the deficiency of imagination and intellect that causes people to strike their children. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re too stupid to trick a child into thinking what you would like them to do is a good idea, then you’re too stupid to have bred.
This is why the system (not just America) encourages accidental birth, they don’t WANT smart parents and attitudes like that play right into their hands and they absolutely don’t want smart independent children. What could be more disastrous to a system based on transparent lies, and blind fearful obedience?
They want children whipped into submission so that when the cops tell them to bend over they say yes sir. So they pay their taxes on time. So they develop a sick Stockholm syndrome inspired patriotism and love of the status quo. So they blame themselves for the lack of class mobility. So they will accept their lot without undue fuss.
We’re the first generation in history that’s going to look at our children and realize they are spineless drones. And not because we didn’t beat them or rule them but because we did these things with ignorant prideful gusto. We tell them how to dress and think and eat and when to sleep and shit and then we get flabbergasted when they can’t make even the simplest of decision properly on their own.
They’re growing up with drug searches and metal detectors and arbitrary beatings, and then we act all shocked when the best our generation can manage is a half assed protest or an angry letter when we get our rights trampled, or a 40% voter turn out on the most important election in American history.
We’re pathetic and it ALL stems from the attitude that they are “just children.” I’m reminded of morons writing about the inherent superiority of whites or how women can’t make logical decisions.
We look at the past and see racists and bigots and ignorance galore but we make the same mistake and think OUR prejudices and OUR bigotries are different, and we think our ignorance is non existent. We think our way of living is the pinnacle of ethical and civic achievement and that any radical change is a step back.
The greatest lesson history has to teach is that humanity ignores the lessons of history.
#1 by greg at August 17th, 2010
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You make a lot of good points. The beginning of this brings me back to some conversations I’ve had between my smoking buddies. You’re right about at least this: We are all socialized to believe that what we have is the best and brightest outcome / system / future. What this socialization has accomplished is to turn us into gears in a machine, all thinking towards one goal at a time. Society tells us what to do, what to believe, what to trust. Slowly but surely our humanity is wearing away. You use the example of children, but one can draw on any number of other problems with our society to make these points. I wish we could chat over coffee.
#2 by Innomen at August 19th, 2010
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My apologies if this reply comes to you late, but the disqus comment system is hideously broken. I’ve been inundated with spam, and marking it as such seems to do no good. I wish I had never installed it but now I’m worried it’ll wipe out my old comments if I try to revert.
I focus on children and mating systems because they are of paramount importance in the long term from a sociological perspective. But you are right, these problems are everywhere.
Also children are the absolute bottom of the social pyramid, a friend of mine put it this way. “Kid is the new black.” But the sad thing is, its not new.
And you’ll get more out of me this way. I’m much more coherent in writing than I am in person. I build these essays and comments out of a mire of random webbed thoughts.