Legislating Parenting

My last post about mutilating babies was relatively uncontroversial among peopleguys of reason, but it did make me think a little about a point I made elsewhere recently.

Under proper governance, I think the state could legitimately force a child to receive insulin, for example, if her life depended on it but her parents for sake of their personal stupidity denied it to her.

There are some other issues, like nutrition, where I think this question becomes a bit tricky and I'm not prepared to address it at present.

But let's do look at the realm of ideas for a minute.

Religion, faith is a fundamentally destructive mental behavior.  Teaching a child to stop conceptualizing, stop identifying, stop focusing on reality is a hideous, evil thing to do as a parent. 

It's the kind of thing that makes me extremely angry with all the people who are legally protected as parents, adopted or otherwise, by actions of the state.

But the truth is that they are properly politically, even if not ethically, permitted to teach their children all sorts of horrible ideas.

I hate it, but ultimately it is up to children to shrug off the ideas taught to them by their parents.  Our freedom as human beings to focus on reality and "reset" our minds so that we learn good mental habits.

It is a particularly liberal mindset, I think, that thinks that someone should step in to protect children from the bad ideas of their parents.

The difference between the medical and philosophical needs of children lies in the difference between the existential and the man-made, the actual and the potential.

No one is denying the strong correlation between idiot parents and idiot children, but in our strenuous focus on reality, we rush to point out that probability is not certainty.

This is why we don't pass laws against teaching children about religion.  This is why we don't kick in doors to demand that certain home schooler parents teach evolution or even a round earth. This is why we aren't slap parents in the face for telling their children that shaving will make hair grow back faster and thicker, that Santa Claus is bringing presents later this month, that magnetic fields caused by electricity in wires causes cancer, that drinking milk from plastic bottles will turn little boys into little girls -- or turn them gay!

You are and should be permitted to teach your children any sort of nonsense you like, but you cannot prevent them from finding out different.

Some yahoo on YouTube recently said to me:

What I do care about is my children being exposed to homosexuality as a 'normal' way of life.

But not only is it not my or anyone's job to keep your children ignorant, it is our right to spray whatever ideas we want them to know out into the ether for them to soak up when you're not covering their eyes and ears. 

It doesn't matter if I or anyone else is right or wrong in what we say because if you hadn't completely abdicated your proper role as parent, your child would be able to tell the difference.  But nooooo... you wanted to teach your child to stop thinking, to stop differentiating, to stop focusing on reality and so they learned to "go with the flow" and "seize the day" and "tap into the collective unconscious" and "sense the movement of the holy spirit" and all that.  You're right to worry that they'll go along with whatever passes their way because that's the kind of person you taught them to be.

I really hate that so many people are well within their rights as parents to teach their children stupid ideas like Christianity, Islam, Scientology, Communism, or any other thing like that.  The list of wrong and stupid ideas is, by definition, infinite. It pisses me off that not only can adults who should know better teach this stuff to children, but that they actually do.

As people with the right ideas, we have our work cut out for us.  We not only have to present reality as the truth, but we have to cut through all the mess of horrible ideas that have been presented as the truth prior to these former children.  Fortunately, reality is fairly unavoidable at some level.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 11:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Category: Importance of Ideas
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