Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

[Ben]

Samsara is, indeed, full of horrors.

[Mawkish1983]

Please excuse the following smiley reaction



EDIT: not that it's surprising, I think we've all seen this growing trend and I myself will readily admit that I, as an adult, strugle to dissolve that consumerist yearning... but I KNEW there was a reason I didn't like children's Disney films...

[genkaku]

Ain't it awful? Ain't it terrible? Want to see me wring my hands in despair? Want to see me wax 'concerned?' Pass the white whine, please.

I'm good at all those things...I've got three kids.

But then there's the question of what anyone might do. Greed, anger and ignorance make people less happy. Often enough, others die on account of them. This is not just some beard-stroking, philosophical observation. It's a hard and observable fact. Stupidity doesn't work very well.

But there is nothing like walking into a brick wall a couple of times to suggest that walking into a brick wall doesn't work very well. For those in an 'adult' role, there is their own greed, anger and ignorance to address ... followed by the greed, anger and ignorance their children might learn to enjoy. Parents, if they're anything like me, would love for their children not to be as idiotic as they have been. Parents do their best to drive home their points ... only to find that their children discover other ways to express greed, anger and ignorance.

So what now? Give up and give in? No parent who likes or loves his children would do that. So they do the best they can ... and pray hard. And like as not, the awareness that parents show for their own greed, anger and ignorance will transmit itself ... not perfectly, but quietly. After that, the kids will have to walk into their own brick walls. Always have, always will is my guess.

Creating a social policy may be very good. No reason not to try if someone is inclined. But stupidity is wily stuff. You can't just give someone a de-stupid pill. You can point and hope and do your best. After that, experience kicks in.

Just some amorphous thoughts.

[Mawkish1983]

You can't just give someone a de-stupid pill.

Shame, I could do with some of them for my own consumption.

[Ben]

You can't just give someone a de-stupid pill.

Shame, I could do with some of them for my own consumption.

Ditto for me too!

[spiritnoname]

This is a very Buddhist issue and I'm sorry to say most kids are too stupid to realize how much undue suffering wanting useless junk brings.

[genkaku]

:coffee: This is a very Buddhist issue and I'm sorry to say most kids are too stupid to realize how much undue suffering wanting useless junk brings.

Stupider than adults? At least they might excuse themselves with inexperience, perhaps.

[Ben]

:coffee: This is a very Buddhist issue and I'm sorry to say most kids are too stupid to realize how much undue suffering wanting useless junk brings.

You should be sorry. That was an incredibly ignorant thing to say.

[BlackBird]

Kid's aren't stupid. There are plenty of kids out there smarter than myself. I imagine there are children out there wiser than myself too, and when I find one - I'm sure as hell gonna pull up a chair and listen.

Age is a very relative truth.

[Mawkish1983]

kids are too stupid

. When I was a (very young, maybe 8ish) kid I remember very clearly having 'wonderings' that my teachers and parents ignored and/or discouraged. Wonderings like the following:

* When I walk, am I moving forwards or is the ground moving backwards
* On startrek, how does the teleporter know where the person ends and the air around them begins? What about the air inside them? (leading to a favourite...)
* Where does the river end and the sea begin?
* How do I know I'm not dead and this 'life' is god's test?
* How do I know I'm not dead and this 'life' is god's punishment?
* How can I be sure I'm not the only real person and everyone else are not just illusions to keep me company?
* Am I real or another person's imaginary friend?

I remember in playschool (age 3 ish) believing I had it all figured out, with a model in my mind of the Hindu version of reincarnation... despite living in a little town with absolutely no multiculturalism and having encountered no teachings about life or death other than Sunday school (to which my strict atheist parents sent me because they couldn't before childcare but pulled me out when I got too 'in to it')

A lot of my wonderings were about continua vs discretisation, we are raised in a world where everything (even the wind) is regarded as a discrete entity, but as a child I couldn't figure out why. I don't know what would have been different if my wonderings would have been nurtured or encouraged, but the constant "shut up Keith" (or the more hostile version "piss off Keith" attributed to my parents) did nothing but teach me to suppress any wonderings I had. Why did my parents and teachers want me to "shut up"? Because I struggled to read, I strugged with basic mathematics and I struggled with social interaction. When I was questioning everything, those I was supposed to look up to simply thought I was stupid. Rather than play on the swings in the park I would be seen gazing at the roundabout as it rotated, sitting alone.

Not to hijack the thread, but at age 10 I began to self-harm. At age 14 I attempted suicide. Not all kids are 'stupid', some have wonderings deeper than most adults. I am concerned about my niece now (she's a month old) because I've spoken to her father (my brother) begging for him to teach the child to question everything. He refused, saying he wanted her to be 'normal'.

Sorry about that, needed to get it off my chest.

[Ben]

Thank you Keith.
Like you, I had similar 'wonderings' when I was a child.
Metta

Ben

[Mawkish1983]

I had similar 'wonderings' when I was a child.

I suspect most people who find the dhamma to be beneficial did. I wonder though, do ALL children have these 'wonderings' when the conditioning of their current life is so little? Maybe the fact that young children have very little this-life conditioning makes them wiser than most adults. I don't know.

[spiritnoname]

Ben, you seem offended.

I am offended too.

Both of us have something to work on.