In another thread, Carey wrote:
I think they knew their child was going to be deprived of the essential love and support that ALL people, big and small, need to develope both emotionally and physically. They knew all of this...
Think about this for a moment. What do parents, or anyone for that matter, really "know"? Do most people really understand the permanent damage that can happen in a child from temporary withdrawal of affection, "strict discipline" and isolation? I don't think so. I don't think any newcomer to any of these programs understands it. We all thought we could tough it out or fight or some damned thing.
But what about what the parents "know" about their kids' problems that makes them think they need this kind of radical intervention? Just browse through any of the troubled teen recruiting material offered by any of these Synanon based programs, whether under the WWASP banner or not. They'll tell you that if your daughter is bitchy sometimes, if she makes new friends, if she's somewhat more secretive and jealous over her privacy than she was when she was 10, if she changes the way she dresses and sometimes makes mistakes in character assessment and judgement, that she may well be carrying on a secret double life as a crack whore!!!!
Now, in retrospect, if you take the time to think critically about what they're saying here, it's just as rediculous as believing that if a black cat crosses your path, something bad will happen or that a red tinge accross the moon is a sure sign of coming war. These are just some of the normal, though unpleasant, throws of growing up.
But if you turn to Oprah, she'll reenforce the message for you. If you ask the DARE cop or the school shrink, they'll tell you the same. As a parent, you certainly can't deny the 'evidence'. Indeed, the girl is showing all the 'signs'. But it's very rare to come accross any critical thought or discussion about the conclusions that we draw from this 'evidence'.
But think of some of the other rediculous things that we, as a society, have believed. For example, in the event of nuclear attack, you will be safe and sound if you go into your basement, tuck your head between your legs and develop a liking for canned potatos and dry milk. If it's chemical or biological, then the thing to do is to seal yourself into a small room with about 5 other people to help you exhaust all available oxygen and then see if you can remain concious longer than the guy sealed into the radio broadcast booth.
Human beings are superstitious creatures who crave some higher authority for validation. I don't know exactly when or how it happened, but our society has drawn a rather arbitrary line in the sand wrt what is acceptable behavior for your children. Drugs R BAD, M'khay? Unless the school shrink thinks you're a little high strung. Even then, the same good drug becomes a bad drug if the kid in question would rather have the $5 he can get by selling it to a classmate.
Think of all the things that we used to think of as normal kid behavior but we now view as proof positive of a dire problem. Toiletpapering the teacher's house on Halloween? Threatenign hate crime. Schoolyard brawl among young boys? Antisocial behavior, possible pathology! Playing hookie? What sort of heinous crime are they plotting or committing while not under supervision! Sampling Dad's wet bar? Sure sign of addiction, or will be if we don't nip it in the bud!
It's amazing that any of these kids make it through the gauntlet to adulthood without being condemned as some sort of deviant or criminal!
When my daughter was around 15, she cut class with another girl to go and oggle the cute soccer boys at the private school a block away. When I was a kid, that would have gotten me dragged to the principal's office by the ear or elbow, a good talking to, detention, an essay assignment and a zero for the day. Knowing that, I never tried it. But that was the paradigm of the day.
But that's not what they do today, folks. Instead, the school resource officer (same armed officer who delivered the DARE program) tracked the girls down, handcuffed them!, solicited a tresspassing complaint from the private school, paraded the girls right past all of their school-mates in cuffs while threatening to take them downtown to the Juvenile Intervention Facility, where they could be assessed by a social worker for needed services and, if I complied with their recomendations,
maybe they'd let me take her home.
That was the last day of my daughter's inclusion in the "good kids" crowd. From that day forward, there were the bad kids who now thought she was tough as hell and the good kids, her former friends, who were afraid to be seen spending too much time with her for fear of guilt by association.
Now, I'm not blaming all of my choices from that day forward or all of my daughter's on that one incident. But it is a good example of how the aleged adults in our society seem to have lost all sense and reason when it comes to raising kids. In fact, I did my level best to explain the mind fuck to my daughter at the time, to help her see through it, to make her understand that the cop was just messing with her mind to try and scare her. And she did get it, to some extent. And she did retain one very close friend from the "good kids" crowd for a number of years. But that poor girl did pay the price with her reputation.
Things
have changed, but it's not the kids who are different. It's the adults.
A democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
A republic is where the sheep get to pick which wolves vote on what to have for dinner.
But in a constitutional republic, voting on dinner is strictly
forbidden.
--A Patriot
