MORAL ARMORS Irrational Parenting, Part III

Not Letting Them Think.

We all implicitly know that anything questioning the process of cognition itself will be met with massive irritation, making us want to respond with "Don't question my capacity to think." Their moronic reasoning to show how logic is derived, provokes the thought, "Don't try to tell me how to think." Forcing their opinions down your throat earns the response, "Don't tell me what to think." Some parents show no respect for personal boundaries long after childhood, straightening your clothes, your hair, invading your privacy-incessantly buzzing around you like a mosquito. This belittlement implies incompetent dependency-a fundamental insult to Man or animal-any way you slice it. These actions tick everyone off, at any stage in life.

Their children are a test bed for ill technology-the grand experiment-saying "In this child, the great dream will be made real," and they hold them to their own irrational standard of how they wish life to be. They experiment with violence, as if forcing kids to practice the senseless can make it succeed, and then take aggression out on them when it fails. They trounce on their children's right to life by their gift of life. They punish them for having preferences. They force them into unchosen activities, pushing them into unnecessary competition in areas they care or don't care for, straining kid's friendships and taking the joy out of everything. Eventually their children accept patterns of repression, whose unchosen and unhappy situations follows them into adulthood.

Breaking life down into philosophic essentials, the motives that drive ideas and actions either go on one side-the side of life, or on the other-the side of death. Maybe five percent of parents I have known had a conscious understanding of intellectual essentials and could convey them effectively to children. Thinking is exactly what they don't know how to explain or train. Most wouldn't want to harm children if they knew better, but often they don't and at some point they made the choice not to know. That is their guilt. The crucial point is that their actions affect the child positively or negatively according to existential cause and effect, regardless of their claimed intentions. So what do they do? They try to live their lives for them. They buzz in their face like an insect and never leave them alone, saying "Why do you have to do it my way? Because, that's why. Do you want to be grounded? Don't question me." They offer no chain, make no attempt to teach one and penalize children for reasoning through what doesn't make sense to them. Riddled with cognitive errors and brimming with inexperience, they'll refuse to spank their child as a moral stand when pleasure and pain are the first rudimentary connections a child can make, and their children never learn to respect social boundaries. Instead they'll attempt to explain the ramifications of being good or bad when it's still well outside their cognitive range. Some hit unjustly, choosing violence as the constant solution instead of responsibly engaging a child ready for more complex understandings. A smothering parent will choose their children's diet, their interests, their friends, their schedule, their career, their mate, you name it, claiming to care. They will be hated, and as the children grow, both will make each other miserable. When the kids leave, don't expect to see them for a long, long time.

There is no justification for our every action being checked by another. Alone, we can relax. We can try new things, test and entertain conclusions with no need for immediate validation. There are no disagreements to have and no justifications to clear with ourselves, only dysfunctions to identify and inefficiencies to overcome. Few things are more valuable than a safely executed mistake. There are questions in life that need not be answered on the spot. Experience with the cognitive process itself will provide the completed picture; kids must only remain free to exercise it. Parental interference is a confession that they don't understand the cognitive process themselves, and don't trust their children to use it either. It is inappropriate to attempt to raise another consciousness until you have mastered your own.

Ronald E. Springer is the Author/Philosopher of Moral Armor, the world's first fully-integrated moral philosophy based on the nature of Man. Featured on The Mitch Albom Show, NBC and FOX News radio affiliates, Mr. Springer is available for interviews, speaking engagements, philosophy workshops and seminars. Please contact RonaldESpringer@MoralArmor.com or visit http://www.MoralArmor.com for details.

In The News:

What to know about Fred Noonan, the navigator who vanished alongside Amelia Earhart in 1937.

Doctors in Missouri reportedly pulled a dime-sized brown recluse spider out of a woman’s ear this week after she complained of pain.

A Texas woman found a 3.72-carat yellow diamond in a rock pile at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas last week.

Archaeologists in the U.K. are working to uncover the secrets of an ancient coastal hillfort before it falls into the sea.

A British man who unearthed an estimated 670-year-old medieval ring in the late 1970s recently rediscovered it hidden in storage boxes — and learned the forgotten treasure is reportedly worth thousands of dollars

The discovery of mystery pointy and lengthened skulls in Croatia is shedding new light on the region’s strange ancient rituals.

Officials in Nepal concerned about trash on Mount Everest are implementing a ban on single-use plastics at the famous mountain, AFP reports.

Ancient Britons should have cooked their fish more. A recent study from the University of Cambridge revealed that Bronze-Age Brits had worms in their kidneys measuring over three feet in length. Researchers believe that the people caught the deadly worms (along with a host of other parasites) by eating raw fish, frogs, and shellfish caught in freshwater marshes.

When the crewmembers of the Starship Enterprise pull into orbit around a new planet, one of the first things they do is scan for life-forms. Here in the real world, researchers have long been trying to figure out how to unambiguously detect signs of life on distant exoplanets.

Rising levels of pollution worldwide are increasing the likelihood that people will die early, according to a sweeping new study.

MORAL ARMORS Irrational Parenting, Part III

Parenting Parenting