Beyond Good And Evil
Alright, I've calmed down, and on further consideration, the topic of my last entry could use a more rational explanation of why I responded the way I did, so I'll try to do that now.
To sum up Ms Clinton's speech, she believes children are susceptible to moral degredation from exposure to media content that is inappropriate for them, and she wants to study exactly what kind of and how much degredation occurs. I believe my response below adequately covers why I think that second part there should be denied, but let me expand on the first part.
The idea that children are born pure and innocent is an admirable one, and probably true to some extent for most children, but thinking of them purely as naive beings just waiting to be corrupted by some evil outside force fails to do justice to the idea that humans, including children, are complex, multifaceted creatures, instead reducing them to black-and-white good-and-evil archetypes that do not apply to 99.9% of the majority of the world's population.
I think that all human beings are capable of great good and great evil. Few of us will claim to have only good or evil thoughts, and fewer still actually make good on those claims. Even children, who are indeed pure and innocent compared to nearly all adults, can just as easily go from feeding a stray dog to beating up another child. While one child may be more predisposed towards helping animals and another more predisposed towards bullying, the fact remains that both children have the capacity for each kind of deed, and that doesn't change with age.
Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep mature content away from children as a general rule. We should, for what I hope are obvious reasons. But one of those reasons is NOT to prevent otherwise angelic children from developing a demonic side to their personality. It is there, whether parents like to acknowledge it or not. I believe the key is not to ignore it, but like all other things, to educate children about it. Ideally, they should be able to understand their "evil" side and accept it, while not letting it run rampant when their emotions get the better of them. Just like adults, though how many of us come close to doing so is another topic.
At any rate, it is abundantly clear to me that the method proposed by Ms Clinton is not the answer to whatever question parents are trying to answer about why their children sometimes do bad things, and I only hope that they figure that out sooner than later.
We shall see.
To sum up Ms Clinton's speech, she believes children are susceptible to moral degredation from exposure to media content that is inappropriate for them, and she wants to study exactly what kind of and how much degredation occurs. I believe my response below adequately covers why I think that second part there should be denied, but let me expand on the first part.
The idea that children are born pure and innocent is an admirable one, and probably true to some extent for most children, but thinking of them purely as naive beings just waiting to be corrupted by some evil outside force fails to do justice to the idea that humans, including children, are complex, multifaceted creatures, instead reducing them to black-and-white good-and-evil archetypes that do not apply to 99.9% of the majority of the world's population.
I think that all human beings are capable of great good and great evil. Few of us will claim to have only good or evil thoughts, and fewer still actually make good on those claims. Even children, who are indeed pure and innocent compared to nearly all adults, can just as easily go from feeding a stray dog to beating up another child. While one child may be more predisposed towards helping animals and another more predisposed towards bullying, the fact remains that both children have the capacity for each kind of deed, and that doesn't change with age.
Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep mature content away from children as a general rule. We should, for what I hope are obvious reasons. But one of those reasons is NOT to prevent otherwise angelic children from developing a demonic side to their personality. It is there, whether parents like to acknowledge it or not. I believe the key is not to ignore it, but like all other things, to educate children about it. Ideally, they should be able to understand their "evil" side and accept it, while not letting it run rampant when their emotions get the better of them. Just like adults, though how many of us come close to doing so is another topic.
At any rate, it is abundantly clear to me that the method proposed by Ms Clinton is not the answer to whatever question parents are trying to answer about why their children sometimes do bad things, and I only hope that they figure that out sooner than later.
We shall see.
posted by Gabe at 2:00 AM
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