The Gray Monk

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July 06, 2004

Nanny says .....

Doctor Spock with his cockamamie concepts of how to bring up children has a lot to answer for. It is his spoiled generation that is now ranting and raving in the Halls of Power and trying to criminalise every decent and respectable parent in the land for attempting to bring order and discipline to their errant offspring. Listening to these overindulged and thoroughly inadequate idiots makes me wonder why we don't have some sort of selection process which tests a person's ability to apply common sense to public policy!

The Lords demonstrated a "common sense" approach yesterday when they overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to a Bill which would have made it a criminal offence to smack a naughty and misbehaving child. Instead, they opted to insert a clause which defines "reasonable chastisement". Of course, the anti-smack lobby are up in arms and are demanding that this be changed, but I think the Lords will prevail - not least because that fatuous dummy who masquerades as our Illustrious Leader has put a block on any challenge from his single issues lobby! I reckon it should be compulsory for these campaigners to have to replace the teachers who are being systematically destroyed by their "poor abused and misunderstood children" every time they come up with these campaigns. Only yesterday a well respected and really good teacher, a Deputy Principal in an inner city comprehensive whom I have the pleasure of knowing well, was booked off sick with injuries incurred preventing two of these "fragile and misunderstood/abused" little angels from committing murder in his school. Had he attempted to defend himself he would now be facing charges of assault and have been suspended from his post. The "children" have been "cautioned" by the police and allowed to continue their schooling. Tony will be off work for the rest of this school year and recuperating through a large part of the summer break.

This is what happens when the concept of discipline and particularly of self-discipline is portrayed as abuse or as bullying. For far too long this insidious undermining of society has been passed off as "modernising" or as "moral" development. Don't smack the child is now presented as the only moral manner of bringing up a child. Like the so-called "real books" method of learning to read (the theory is that if you stick a child in a room full of books they will sooner or later learn what the letters and words mean! About as successful as sitting a monkey at a typewriter and expecting to get Shakespeare's plays), the child is expected to learn the art of social intercourse, discipline, and self restraint totally unaided.

The trouble with these folk is that they are unable to differentiate between a smack given in concern and love to draw attention and prevent an injury and one given in unthinking rage which causes injury. They cannot see the difference between an assault by an adult on another adult, and the slap a child sometimes needs to guide it out of unacceptable or dangerous behaviour.

I had a prime example of the need for discipline last Friday night. I went to my local supermarket to buy my groceries for the week. It had been a tough week, I was tired and I was also rather later than usual as I had had to put in some overtime. Unfortunately, a "modern" mother had her undisciplined brood with her. These youngsters - aged between about 4 and 6 were hyper-active and rushing about screeching and behaving in the usual "excited children mode" but totally without any parental control or restraint. It was when they started pushing individual trolleys and rushing up and down aisles that I found I could no longer concentrate on my shopping - being tired and on a short fuse didn't help - and when the trolley was forced past me for the second time, I made my way to the manager's kiosk and left my shopping there. Asked why, I started to say that I could not shop in these conditions when there was a further crash, the tinkle of breaking bottles and loud screams. The manager paled and asked if I would excuse her; I said certainly, and left. I find people whose idea of disciplining a child is to bleat plaintively "Please Chloe?" and "Nigel, PLEASE don't do that!" without any sanction being imposed are not only not in control of their spoiled and totally impossible brats, but shouldn't be allowed to be parents! I had to return and shop the next morning when the Manager recognised me and gave me a rather apologetic greeting. The mess in the wine display told its own story - trouble is, I bet the idiot mother not only refused to pay for the damage, but probably threatened to sue the store for the "risk of injury to her brats!"

This problem is compounded by the now almost unnoticed attack on all authority figures and the symbols of authority by the Liberal Left. The fact that they now control most schools, universities, the legal profession, the political parties, and, most importantly, the Television, newspapers, and the entertainment media doesn't help. Check out any of the children's cartoon shows on TV. The first thing you notice is that the hero is almost always a slightly anarchic "youth". The second is that the "enemy" is almost always the military or failing them, the police. By association anyone in uniform is now seen as an "enemy of freedom", a neo-fascist bully with the intention of suppressing any free-spirited (and usually pretty obnoxious) "hero" or "heroine" who manages to save the planet from some evil plague usually depicted as having been released by the bad guys in uniform.

History is not so much taught these days as torn apart in order to make the children see what evil people our ancestors were and how they "exploited" everyone and everything. This travesty is presented as "teaching analytical skills". Tosh! Our hero figures have been surreptitiously replaced by popular creations of the left controlled media - viz: the Pop Star culture, the footballers (Soccer to you colonial types who play "proper" football out there in Oz!) all of whom can be built up by the Press and then destroyed as soon as the next "big thing" comes along. You have only to look at the Charles and Diana story (no marriage could survive the treatment they got even if it had been sound to start with) and now the David Beckham and Victoria (Posh Spice) saga.

All of this, coupled with the over protective laws which now confine children more and more to their own home environment and reduce the opportunities to learn about social interaction to what happens at school or in some shopping mall, is producing a nation of socially inadequate, under educated, and undisciplined children. In a recent court case the defence argued that a child who had vandalised several cars had not done so maliciously and anyway the owners' insurance should be the appropriate medium for their compensation. The morons on the bench bought it, which tells you everything you need to know about why our society is in terminal decline!

Sadly, this latest lunacy over smacking and the whole question of discipline, self or otherwise, is not over yet. Do not expect the voices of reason to prevail; the voices of stupidity, the siren call of the "moralist" who neither understands the term nor is bothered by the fact that they do not have any rational case, will prevail - especially if this government succeeds in winning another term. Should that happen - kiss the English and all that is Britain good bye! As it is, I suspect that this vote in the Lords has merely delayed the inevitable and that our society will be swept aside in the very near future by a more vigorous and far less "free" society arising from the morass of multi-culturalism.

Not that we have much freedom now!

Posted by The Gray Monk at July 6, 2004 04:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: MommaBear at July 7, 2004 10:55 AM