Jed Rothwell wrote:
Revtec wrote:
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we
might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).
That is incorrect. His grandson committed suicide because he suffered
from severe mental illness. Mental illness is not caused by parents who
do not spank their children, although in some cases it is caused by
parents who *do* spank or otherwise abuse their children.
Indeed. We're already pretty far off topic here; let's go a little farther.
Check out
http://nospank.net/
for a bit more on the consequences of spanking and abuse. It's a large
site, with a lot of information, though it can be little hard to find
stuff on it.
Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein were abused as children. If we want more
people like them, then child abuse is good. One could reasonably argue
that the Holocaust would not have taken place had it not been for two
generations of child abuse in Hitler's family. Alice Miller has written
a fair amount on this general topic; one essay of hers can be found here:
http://nospank.net/miller2.htm
Spanking and whipping are profitable in the United States. Check out
http://stoptherod.net/
for some info on the folks who make the tools to do it.
Of course, fundamentalist Christians in this group may find the above
sites offensive, since, while the assertion that "God is love" is
something we teach to children, the "Christian" approach to
child-rearing is all too often based on the book of Proverbs, or a few
narrowly selected passages from the Pauline letters, rather than the
words of Jesus. One of my favorite "amazing phrases" that comes from
the milieu of "Christian parenting" is "Biblical spanking", it brings to
mind such a remarkable image... "You behave yo'self, Joe, or I'll git
the Bible an' whup you good with it!"
Also, Spock advocated, and practiced, discipline and structured child
rearing. The notion that he favored allowing children to misbehave is
absurd, as anyone who has read his books knows.
The other assertions in this message that the world is going to hell in
a handbasket -- that crime is increasing or people in the U.S. are
becoming less religious -- have no basis in objectively measured fact.
These are urban myths. I wish that people would become less religious,
but the trend in the U.S. and in the Moslem countries is in the other
direction.
Since this is a science-based discussion group I wish that Revtec would
do a little fact checking before posting messages -- even off topic ones
-- that have gross factual errors.
- Jed
