It all started with Santa and The Easter Bunny….
Originally posted 8/30/06 on ursuspacificus.blogspot.com –ed.
I’ve long held the belief that the childhood bullshit stories of Santa Claus and The Easter Bunny were just foundations for the adulthood bullshit story of Christianity. Children are fed simple, easy to understand, and seasonal myths to get them used to the idea of believing in certain supernatural crap (constant surveillance, absolute justice, divine authority, reward/punishment and so on), so that, assuming they haven’t really latched on to science in school, they will be ready to latch on to the major-league supernatural crap.
It’s kinda like the Boy Scouts… You start out in the Cub Scouts… doing handicrafts and stuff… nothing too… y’know… right-wing… but in the process of all that, they get you to recite all these pledges and oaths over and over again… saying things that you don’t really think about, you just say. You’re six, after all. You’re really not likely to have a firm handle on ideas like “Duty”, “Honor” and “God and Country”…. but you say these things, beacuse doing so is a requirement for acceptance in an apparently admirable group. After a few years of reciting these pledges and oaths, and enjoying the comraderie, it becomes second nature. The ideas and ideals of the leadership of the group become, to a greater or lesser extent, your own. You move on through Weeblos and, eventually, the actual Boy Scouts. By this time, the child has pretty much been moulded into a prime recruitment candidate for the military.
Well… here it comes again. This story on NPR tells of a gadget you can covertly (or overtly) install in your kid’s car so you can keep constant watch on them… it monitors speed, location, time, et cetera…. and emails the parent(s) when the child is in violation. Aigh. I’m sorry… AAAAIIIIGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
From the story:
“I think, over time, parents will feel if they don’t have this, they’re not being good parents,” says Jim Katz, Director of the Rutgers University Center for Mobile Communication Studies. He says that soon, tiny cameras — like the ones in most new cell phones — will enable parents to literally watch over their kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week– and even eavesdrop on their conversations. But, Katz says, all the new technology may give parents a false sense of security.
Um.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AH
AH
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIGH!!!
And kids are supposed to be OK with this?! We, as adults, are supposed to be OK with this?! What the FUCK is going on here?! This is Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny… Cub Scouts and Catechism… This is generational indoctrination of children into situations that reasoning adults would find intolerable.
Are parents so busy now that they have no time for PARENTING?!
… and people wonder why I don’t want kids.