Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Adults.

You think a *two-year-old* fears death???
Mary Anne — (archived)

A two-year-old can't even understand the concept. Have you read anything about death and the psychology of young children? These are the same people who believe something lurks under the bed that can be warded off by hiding under blankets.

Hell, teenagers don't have a lot of fear of death, and they understand it intellectually, sort of. They're a lot older than toddlers.

The child who wants the ball in the street will not think twice about death. It's not part of her emotional vocabulary. "Death" is one more word that Mommy or Daddy may have used. It's not real, unless she lives in a war zone or a place where a natural disaster has occurred during her lifetime. (Even so, children often dissociate themselves emotionally from extreme trauma, a kind of willful forgetting.)

The child who wants the ball in the street and associates going into the street with pain, however fleeting, is more likely not to go out and get it. A swat to the behind or a finger thump to the noggin is something that child understands, having experienced it.

You have no concept of moderation. Either people behave the way you say, or they are beasts. You will allow no middle ground. This is also visible in your political pronouncements. I wonder why that is.

Again, you have no clue.

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