Friends, this photograph of a baby is very cute. Like all babies, its eyes are open and trusting. Its ears hear the sounds of the parents, of the world without discrimination. It is, except for its genetic instincts, a blank slate upon which many things will be written. By others.
The baby, like all others, has no defense mechanism, no thinking processes. It is entirely dependent. It does have some simple instincts: to suckle, to sleep, to cry if it’s uncomfortable. It just copies and imitates and is rewarded for so doing. It is a living blotter! It absorbs everything.
Slowly it learns. Slowly it begins to coordinate its limbs. Slowly it begins to recognize the difference between a smile and a frown, a soft voice and an angry one, a cuddle and a smack. That is how it begins to form an opinion about good and bad.
Faster and faster it learns. It smiles, it laughs, it begins to articulate. “Mum, mum, mum,” it murmurs much to the delight of its mother and to the disappointment of its father. Gradually it is toilet-trained and is introduced to picture books and letters of the alphabet and other babies.
Gradually, into the unsuspecting baby’s mind, we pour the mistakes of parents and the combined mistakes of generations of humans.
If the parents are religious, they will tell the child about God, show the child pictures of Jesus, take it to Church and Sunday School or the Synagogue or the Mosque. If the parents are political, the child will be indoctrinated with messages that Conservatism is good and Liberalism is bad or visa versa. If Daddy is a businessman, the child will soon learn that capitalism is wonderful and the holiday house at the beach is its outcome. If the parents are wealthy, the child will learn to think that it is superior to other children.
At school, public or private, the child will be ‘educated’! Year by year, teachers will move the child through the latest curriculum that has been devised by academics and consultants who decide that this knowledge is good and that is bad. The knowledge imparted is designed to prepare the child for joining society, for understanding how it works, for getting a job and for working a lifetime and paying taxes but not to think or to question or to be non-conformist.
Reaching adulthood the human is unlikely to be a radical or a free-thinker. It is unlikely to go off into the forest and live in a cave and eat berries and roots and, wearing a robe, reflect upon the universe. It is unlikely to set up a small, sustainable community in a far-off country, one that grows its own food, one that encourages creative activities like painting and sculpture and writing plays. It is unlikely to advocate that the world’s resources should be shared equally, that greed is to be despised, that power corrupts, that militarism is an evil, etc. And it’s unlikely to become a philosopher who can conceive of a better or entirely different way for humans to live, one that encompasses peace and justice and compassion for all.
No, it most likely will end up being another God-fearing, mindless human who is consumed by greed and materialism, one who will step on anyone who gets in the road of its selfish ambitions, one who supports an economic system that rips people off, one who believes in a political system that is corrupt, unrepresentative and is used and abused by the wealthy, one who is elitist and glorifies war and status and thinks that conspicuous consumption is a good value to have. Perhaps it might even end up as another Madoff, a Stanford, a Netanyahu, a George W Bush, a Pol Pot, a Hitler or even a Howard?
Babies haven’t got a chance.
Your stating the obvious David, do you have a neo human parenting course?
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It may be obvious to you Kemosobi, but it appears to escape 99% of the rest of the world. They just continue to do what their parents did to them!
I would hope that, during the clearing process, a neo-human would become very aware of the amount of disinformation that has been poured into him or her. They, in turn, surely would be very careful as to what information and programming they pour into the mind of their own children.
P.S. See the quote by Socrates in my ‘Quotes’.
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Maybe I am repeating Kemosabi’s qustion, but seriously, if you had a 6 yr old chilld, what ideas would you have for its long-term outlook, an ideal education? Would you homeschool and hook up with other homeschoolers? There are tons of parental beliefs dumped on kids from alternative families too. Esperanto is big in those circles if you know what I mean. Does anyone speak Esperanto? Great article.
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David G Reply:
February 20th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Grace, somehow, I more or less escaped some of the rigid programming that I was subjected to. How I did it or why is unknown to me. Perhaps I was just a misfit? Perhaps I just had a good nose for what was false? Perhaps I had intuition, even some intelligence, who knows?
As I free myself I’m better able to see what is wrong than what is right. Like many, I’m flying blind much of the time, just feeling my way. The state of the world is proof enough for me that the way the world is run is wrong and that we can’t continue with the status quo.
During my teacher training, as students, we looked at alternative way to educate, to bring up kids, ones that have been tried over centuries. There were many theories but few real, provable, workable solutions.
The most important thing a child can achieve is the ability to question and to think for itself. These two things show that the brain is working, that it can receive information, analyze it, evaluate it, then come to a conclusion that may be independent of the mob mentality and the forces of indoctrination.
Some children can do this in a formal educational setting though it is more difficult given the power of peer pressure. Others would do better in a home environment where a clued-up parents is in attendance. Of course, in the home, the child may not learn to relate to others as well as it should.
As a grassroots philosopher, I tend to be better at asking questions than I am at coming up with answers though I do have a few ideas.
Hope this helps!
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David, I see visions of Aldous Huxley’s ” Brave New World” here. But moving on.
Ah parenting you need the wisdom of Solomon.But it does not necessarily follow children will end up as carbon copy’s of their parents.My grandmother on my mothers side was an alcoholic and the family were dirt poor, however, all of the children from that family of which there were eight, ended up comparably well off, and all as far as I know well adjusted.Well maybe not me, you have seen some of my comments.
For mine David, I believe the greatest influence on a child in the years that will set their characters in concrete, is not the parents, but the parents of the childs friends.The cliche “Easily led ” is not just a throw away line used by trial lawyers and parents to justify Johny’s attempted murder of his mate.The old peer pressure is a powerful emotion.
And brother we all have(if we’re honest) double and conflicting standards. The thought of our daughters in the back seat with the local trouble maker, fills us with shock horror.But the son, oh no get in for your chop boy.
We are strange animals to be sure.
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David G Reply:
February 20th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Phill, your concluding sentence says it all!
I’d like to see less of the animal and more of the intelligence but I won’t hold my breath.
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the age of reason …
G’day David G,
I have considered this and similar themes almost continuously (but obviously not ‘full-time’) for most of my adult life.
A short summary (but necessarily not too short):
1. As a young child (aged 6 or 7 perhaps), I was *forced* to go to ‘Sunday school.’ This (late) forcing might have contributed to ‘saving’ me; I am now and have been for a looong time an (aggressive!) atheist.
2. As a sub-teen I was ‘counselled’ by a ‘man of the cloth’ – not a bad person, I thought, and he had some good ideas – but even by that stage I could hear his ‘messages’ about his g*d, and smile: what rubbish!
3. Skip a few years to young adult-hood, and see with great surprise and anguish, the first marriage-failures in my peer group. My then conclusion: such people have an obvious information deficit, why did they put themselves into relationships that failed, and failed so fast at that?
4. Skip a few more years (lots) to the pre-planning for our daughter’s arrival.
-=*=-
Intermezzo: I agree with David G’s idea of a blank slate; extended, it is in the survival interest of the child to hear and instantly react to certain critical information, like “That is a poison spider, do not touch!” Hence, David G’s ‘sponge,’ very young children suck up info, without any critical processing *possible*. It is this ‘window of *unreason*’ that is exploited to corrupt the child with religion (and other shit). Religious indoctrination may be initiated with a two-step process: a) scare the child shitless “Yore gunna die!” – then offer the 101% guaranteed way out “Unless you believe and get saved by g*d!” The age of reason takes over when the child becomes capable of detecting lies. Corrupting a child with religion is, in my opinion, disgusting, most serious child abuse. No excuse or pardon possible; the damage so done can, most often does, last a lifetime.
-=*=-
In (4) above, my wife and I discussed all of this and more. We came to the following conclusions (trying to be brief):
a) We agreed to my proposal that before ‘the age of reason’ (roughly, less than aged about 5 or 6, depending on rate of child’s development), that we would protect our daughter from all lies, and that means from all sources, not just no ‘little whites’ from us (not at all necessary anyway, and extremely silly (possibly irrevocably damage to the child and trust, both[1]) – of any parent to do it), and point out any/all lies from outside. (One may begin to understand my loathing of lies via the MSM and public broadcasters…)
b) Following on from that, of course, trying to prevent any exposure to ‘supernatural’ stories, and if she did ‘accidentally’ hear such then explaining any error.
c) ‘Naturally,’ quotes here because it hardly happens naturally at all in our current societies, we instilled (recall: no critical faculties) a working, fair morality. Ours is (easily!) based on “Do unto others …” with the (redundant but reinforcing) addition “Do no harm!”
Comment (redundant but required) : Handing the teaching of morals over to any church is an (obvious!) recipe for failure.
As a last bit (for now, trying to be compact), because the ‘rest of the world’ is so ugly, we gave our daughter fair warning “Other children may not understand and be mean to you, if that happens then you can simply ask them not to be so mean.” That briefing, plus aware teachers (made so aware if required) can go a long way to surviving growing up and the education system both.
-=*=-
One ‘payoff’ came unexpected; our daughter informing us one day “Xxx lied!” in a wondrous voice. Her age of reason had been reached.
-=*=-
Quick summary/extension: In general, the ‘normal’ education process fails in several ways, first and most grievously at the parent level (why is there no standard manual? You may well ask), and later at the formal level, where along with the disinformation needed to turn out industrial slaves, the necessary information of basic human interactions is largely ignored or – worse – deliberately distorted.
-=*=-
Fazit: The first priority is, before the child’s own natural ‘lie detector’ turns on, i.e. before “the age of reason,” tell them no lies. Then, make sure that the obvious (wi-i-ide) gaps in the education system are filled by the parents.
Hope that’s of some help.
-=*end*=-
PS Just as very young children have no properly functioning filter against lies, so the human audio/visual system has no properly functioning filter against TV – at any age. (No, it’s not ‘just’ a movie! … or ‘news’ broadcast…) The implications – and proof – are both obvious[1].
-=*=-
Ref(s):
[1] The possible antidote to these, as other problems: the truth. Lots of it. Exclusively and comprehensively, one might say.
[cross-posted]
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Ooops! Missed putting in the ‘b.’ In ‘Intermezzo:,’ it should go “then b) offer” Sorry.
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Gradually, into the unsuspecting baby’s mind, we pour the mistakes of parents and the combined mistakes of generations of humans.
This is a beautiful statement.
I disagree with parts of it.
Parents will not put the mistakes that they have detected in themselves in the child; only their false truths!
As you turned out a ‘misfit’, any child might. We malleable little things, not all of us as that cute baby in the picture. I want a child like that, only SELFISHLY to make her into what i couldn’t be myself, while encouraging in her things that i love about myself! The irony is, she will perhaps (most likely) rebel against those things that are my residues!
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Ian D. Holm Reply:
February 21st, 2009 at 12:47 am
G’day naj,
Two things:
1) May I enquire as to who the ‘you’ is in your «As you turned out a ‘misfit’»?
Just asking; I didn’t actually detect any ‘misfit’ discussion – except in David G’s “Perhaps I …” list of possibilities.
Or is it your conclusion, that his ‘perhaps’ is no ‘maybe,’ and that anyone who escaped ‘normal’ conditioning is a misfit?
Curiouser and curiouser.
2) Another different perhaps, your «perhaps (most likely) rebel against those things that are my residues!»
See rebel[1] below.
My idea of (serious!) rebels, is that they have some *real* cause to rebel against. We’ve all heard about ‘teenage-rebels,’ and what a problem that and they can be. Perhaps (another one!) – if such were *freely* convinced of whatever, then they may not rebel?
I offer one final ‘perhaps:’ perhaps David G, as others who seem to have escaped ‘normal’ conditioning, just got lucky, to have detected early enough the lies we are all drowning in? What other (reasonable) explanation could there be, to ‘lucky?’ Hmmm.
-=*=-
[1] rebel —n. 1 person who fights against, resists, or refuses allegiance to, the established government. 2 person or thing that resists authority or control. —attrib. adj. 1 rebellious. 2 of rebels. 3 in rebellion. —v. (-ll-; US -l-) (usu. foll. by against) 1 act as a rebel; revolt. 2 feel or display repugnance. [Latin: related to *re-, bellum war]
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I spend a lot of time with my 3 year old grandson and I can see everyday how he is learning from his enviroment. I am pretty sure I am a much better grandmother than I was a mother. I am lucky, I sometimes think, that my kids turned so good inspite of my doing things that now I wish I hadn’t to my kids, but I suppose every parents says that at some time. Inspite of all I do to try to raise my grandson “right” I see all the time how he is learning ideas and behavior that his parents and I do not agree with. He just sucks up everything he comes in contact with, but has no way to tell the difference between good and bad ideas and behavior.
The only thing I seem able to do is try to teach him well and hope for the best. Your site is a great place to stay in touch with the ideas that get lost so easily in our modern, fast paced, material world. Ideas I want and need and hope to instill in my grandson.
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Gullible? Naive, certainly. Open to every kind of learning experience, of course. But can a newborn really be described as gullible?
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You know, David, I too have always wondered how I have overcome the propaganda that has been drilled into my mind. My relatives, my sisters, my parents, and most of my classmates have not and I find this peculiar. Is it genetic for some to question everything in life or is it experiencing the right opportunities at the right times? I personally feel it has a great deal to do with self confidence personal experiences. If it were mostly genetic I would assume there would be more in my family who have the desire to question the way the world works. Fear not, however, because I am doing all I can to spread the support of independent thought, no matter how great a minority I may be in this world.
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The first phrase my son said was, “What’s that or Wuzzatt?” He would ask me first and then ask his father the same question to make sure we weren’t trying to pull one over on him. You could see that when our answers were in accordance he was pleased that we had told him the truth! I used to say ‘you have to get up early in the morning to pull one over on that guy. ‘ The first time we wrapped him in the “baby burrito” blanket, both arms emerged free from the binding like Billy Idol singing with A Rebel Yell. It is comforting to hear that the fact he IS a natural rebel will probably save him in the long run. It is not easy. We have had to walk away from friends whose parents parented too differently. We have clear rules and boundaries. Expectations and consequences, but beyond that we are pretty easy going and give him alot of space and no violent shows It is hard for him being an only child with nobody to play with all the time. That is a thing to learn that people aren’t there to entertain you all day and to develop oneself and to have personally fulfilling activities of focus. Teaching a musical instrument I think will help him too once the teenager years hit. I live every day in preparation of him being a teenager! Enjoy all the comments, sorry no more time today. Peace out friends.
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Ian, an informative and interesting comment! Thanks.
Naj, the fate of the world is in the hands of the rebels. The sheeple will just, “Baaaaaaaa!”
Jeannie, our first learning comes from imitation. It is normal. But it is not necessarily good for the development of a thinking brain! Boy, does our crazy world need some THINKING brains.
I’d have said ‘infinitely gullible’ Arvy.
Teddy, great to hear that you’re on our side. May we grow from strength to strenght, we misfits who have broken out of the mould.
Grace, to encourage individuality and questioning is a tremendous asset for your son. He is lucky to have perceptive parents who want him to become unique rather than just another face in the herd!
Cheers to all!
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How about this: Until we current humans figure it out- we don’t create anymore?…. A novel idea I know. The simple fact that many of our current lifestyles are not sustainable should be reason enough to halt procreation…. but we cannot do that, can we? Oh no! And there you have it- We, as a species, clearly have an inability to reason- for the sake of the common good. If we did- no one would be producing more human beings. Thank you for your website David.
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David G Reply:
February 21st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
If we could reason, there would be no war either, ES, no destruction of the planet, no religion, no greed, etc. We would work together to make life as pleasant as possible for everyone during our short stay. Thanks for dropping by.
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The basis for your rationale is non existent, woe unto you hopeless people! When you see Jesus, recognize that he is Lord that he might have mercy on your soul.
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Justin, this blog is for people who live in the real world. Do you still believe in Santa too?
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And Moses said unto me come forth Philip
And I tripped on a Lion shit and came fifth.
Sorry David I can’t help myself.
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