Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Chicken and the egg & The big monkey cage

re: Chicken and the egg & The big monkey cage
azstrummer — (archived)

Problem with the hypocrisy in this case is that children are not inherently good and innocent as many would like to think they are. They suffer from all the genetic mishaps those "evil" people in the Mideast that we're bombing have in their coding. I do agree that violence tends to foster more violence but I also know from personal experience that if there are no consequences when you're bad, you grow up to believe you can take extreme chances without fear of harm.

Bullies are a good example. They come in both children and adults. Without someone occasionally standing up to them, they go on and on with their terrorism. I don't know if you noticed, but after the Dr. Spock era, there were a whole lot more of these young little bullies running around riding roughshod over their parents and anyone else around them.

Many of the so-called evil people you wish to turn into ash in the Mideast are not doing the things they do simply because they're bullies and know no consequences. The bullies certainly need to be smitten down but others simply have nothing more to live for and have solid grievances against the injustices they and their families have suffered through. You won't teach them lessons by blowing some of them up and you can't kill them all.

Nobody on here that advocates spanking of children wants to abuse their children. They want a measured response to the act. It's part of learning to find out that bad behavior in life can often bring instant and painful responses. A spanking doesn't put children in mortal fear for their lives unless it's true and viscious abuse. I've seen children grow up without that form of punishment and have gotten the fine privilege of being in a bar with them as they provoke some guy way bigger than they are, oblivious to the potential paths the evening could take. Luckily, I had enough respect for the concept that being an asshole might bring pain so I often jumped in and diffused things with humor or wit.

I really wish your ideal worked but we had a decade or two that proved it was a miserable failure. Ask any teacher.

Art

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