Sunday, September 22, 2019

The Downsides of Outlawing Spanking

What happens when countries outlaw spanking/corporal punishment for children.  Sweden was the first country to do this, and the predictable effects are now coming out as successive generations figure out how to game the system.  When adults have no recourse of control that children will respect or listen to, they become a mob where the only accepted violence is at the hands of children and vigilante justice rules the playground and streets.

I can't tell you the number of people who told me that I was evil for administering corporal punishment to my children when they were young.  Nobody complains anymore because my kids are older and don't need much discipline, let alone corporal punishment, but I must admit to a touch of freudenschade when people who condemned me so harshly raise hellions and my children get universal praise from their peers and teachers/coaches/adult authority figures. 

Those who don't understand the difference between spanking and abuse are unlikely to be able to create diverse spaces where children feel safe and protected.  It may work in elite neighborhoods where people self-select on the basis of income, but the implementation across broad swaths society and criminalizing parents like me brings only disaster.  It may take a generation or two, but it will come.  Nature will have a say in the end.  You can only live off the culture built by your dead ancestors for so long before the fact of your inability to successfully build a culture becomes obvious.  The body of Apsu may keep culture alive for a generation or two, but Tiamat always takes her revenge.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/lord-of-the-flies-letter-from-sweden/


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