Good grief...
The ethics pertaining to the having of children are pretty difficult. I'm not averse to frank discussion of whether it's right or wrong to have them at all.
And I understand that children are themselves really difficult, often unpleasant to be around. Borderline psychopathic assholes, even.
But it's also possible to be loving and affectionate towards them without brain damage. It's pretty damn logical, even.
Presumably/hopefully it's the product of a loving relationship. That can be enough for a decent parenting couple with no brain damage needed. And a compassionate person will realize that it's not a child's fault that they were brought into the world, thus the people who produced them have entered themselves into an obligation to offer the kind of mental and emotional support and stimulation that will enable them to grow up into healthy, functioning adults, and the rest of the world besides has an enlightened interest in offering support to that for the sake of a stable society.
When I see someone speak of children so hatefully, it's hard for me to imagine that being separate from self-loathing and general misanthropy. Because every human being is a work in progress throughout their lives until the day they die. Childhood is just a stage. One that nobody reaches adulthood without passing through. It's necessary. Not only physiologically. All those temper tantrums are a step on the path to learning how not to temper tantrum. Every demand for attention is a step on the path towards learning how to engage in healthy relationships as an adult. And those steps never end. A 30-year-old can seem just as self-obsessed and obnoxious to an elderly person as a 3 year-old seems to the 30-year-old.
I can understand having a personal preference to avoid being around children. But I don't understand how one can hate children without hating themselves as being a product of the process of passing through childhood, or without lacking the perspective that they are still continuously going through that same process, such that they are likely still seen as a child by others.
I'm 36. I own a house. I'm a leadership figure in my workplace, and had people report to me. I have kids of my own. And I still look to my parents for guidance. I'm still regularly a pain in their ass, even. I still have a lot of growing to do. If I hated children enough to spit such vitriol about them, then I would be pretty short-sighted not to pro-actively hate myself now, knowing that my middle-aged or elderly self will not look back on my 36-year-old self with understanding.
Author
Topic: AmeriPol thread (Read 3599177 times)