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Saturday, November 30, 2013

The New Victim Class

Maybe "new" isn't the right term. It has been some time as far as I can tell. But it keeps coming up. I was watching the news the other day and they were interviewing some folk who were doing an early "Black Friday" shopping trip. They were hoping to save hundreds of dollars because their kids were demanding expensive computing devices for Christmas. "My 8-year-old wants an iPhone and my 10-year-old wants a tablet." Poor parents. In order to make their children happy, they're going to have to cough up literally thousands of dollars to buy electronic gadgets for their children.

Last week I was in on a conversation with a pregnant mother of a barely-two-year-old boy. "I just don't know what to do," she was saying. The little boy was in the habit of hitting ... everything. He hit the furniture, the dog, his mother. "I tried tapping his behind" (her words) "but it didn't do any good. I can't find any way to get him to stop. I am afraid he'll hit the baby when he comes." Poor parents. Victims of their children.

When did this happen? When did our society decide to overturn the parent-child relationship where there was a responsible adult authority figure and a child who was under the authority of that figure? When did we decide that children rule? And when we did, did anyone consider the ramifications of allowing an undeveloped, untrained young mind to command? Because I'm pretty sure it won't be a good thing.

We often think that today is better than yesterday, that we are getting better and better. We think of "progress" as always a good thing and we are always progressing. Today's parents, for instance, are better than yesterday's parents because we have "progressed". Of course, today's kids are bored and killing random strangers or walking the streets playing the "Knockout game" and so on. I can only imagine what the next generation of parents will be, given our "progress" in the last 50 years. Poor parents.

4 comments:

Joe said...

"...today's kids are bored..."

I used to pull this one on my parents. They always found me something to do...something that did not include hanging with "friends" of doubtful character.

Found you through The Watchman's Bagpipes, BTW. You present some thought provoking stuff. Thanks.

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Don't forget that whenever the government - especially those of the Demokrat party - come up with a new tax, or a tax-sucking program, it is always "for the children."

Stan said...

Thanks, Joe.

Yes, Glenn, "for the children" makes everything okay ... nay, mandatory. "What, don't you care about the children??!!"

Glenn E. Chatfield said...

Joe,

Stan has some really good stuff, and I've bookmarked many of his articles for future reference.

I don't remember where you stand on Calvinism, but if you're like me, you just learn to "tiptoe through the TULIPS," because he's a good guy even with that quirk :oD