Growing Up On Another Planet

Viewing Earth in 2007, particularly the United States, leaves me astonished. You see, I grew up on another planet and I find it difficult to understand how things here on this planet got into such a state. It seems to me that most things defy logic and serve no real purpose other than to keep politicians (the civil masters) and the civil servants employed and busy. In this post I would like to point out some of the inconsistencies between our two planets.

When I was growing up on my planet, we had bicycles as the youth do here. I used to ride my bike everywhere you could imagine. I rode it on the road, the alley, dirt trails, and anywhere else I wanted to go. There were no "bike paths" that offered protected havens for cyclists. We just rode where we could. And what may astonish those born on this planet is that we had no helmet laws for riding bicycles. All of my childhood friends rode bikes and none wore helmets. We received our share of scratches, bruises, stitches, and other injuries, but we all survived. It might amaze people of this planet that one does not immediately die if they ride a bike without a helmet.

Another fascinating similarity that is different is childhood discipline. On my planet in my childhood years, there was corporal punishment waiting for those that would not follow the rules or insisted on being miscreants. We received spankings, whippings, and some times just a good thrashing and believe it or not, those things did not turn us into violent criminals. Actually, quite the contrary! It was that adamant requirement from our parents for proper behavior that prevented us from being violent criminals! But what I see on this planet is that misbehavior is encouraged by the lack of action on the part of parents. Instead of children being required to be accountable and responsible for their actions, the parents reward their behavior by finding excuses for it. And when there is a dispute between a child and a teacher, this planet requires that the student always prevails. I find that chilling and remarkable. I think the option of a little corporal punishment administered by school officials definitely gets a kid's attention. Well, it did on our planet where the parents cared about the kids' futures.

One thing that dumbfounds me about this planet is that its denizens appear to all believe that no one is responsible for themselves. I can only conclude this because if you stumble on a sidewalk, you assert that it is the fault of the one who happens to have the sidewalk on or near their property and if you eat or drink something too hot and get burned, its the person's fault who gave it to you. Are people from this planet incapable of common sense and thinking for themselves? It appears so. When I am handed a hot drink or hot food, I test it first to see how hot it is. Amazing isn't it? On our planet we were taught to think for ourselves.

And speaking of teaching, why is it that schools on this planet are afraid to give bad grades or (heaven forbid) fail a student? Are children of this planet so sensitive and so fragile that a bad grade will destroy their self-esteem and ruin their futures? Amazingly, when children received bad grades on our planet, they were clued in to the fact that maybe there was something they were missing. And the teachers would proactively try to help those students or get them some help. But alas, on this planet, you dumb down the tests so that "no child is left behind" and in reality, "no child excels" either because all are held back to the least common denominator: the poor students.

But I think the most amazing thing about living on this planet versus growing up on my planet is the "in your face" inconsistency regarding how to treat children. On the one hand, you coddle children even up to they turn 18. This is done by saying that "they are too young to be responsible for themselves" and "we need to protect the helpless children". But then on the other hand, you try to elevate children as young as 4 years old into young adult status by saying things like "don't sell kids short, they can contribute and make a difference" and "children deserve the same respect as adult members of the family regardless of their age". This is blatant and irresponsible inconsistency. How can they be both naive innocents that are not responsible for their own actions and yet their opinions and suggestions should carry the same weight as adults? Either you require them to be responsible at younger ages or you quit requiring adults to be responsible. None of this makes sense. On our planet, children were children and grew into maturity and responsibility, the decisions for how this should be done were firmly the responsibility of the parents, not lawmakers.

And finally, something that seldom if ever was exhibited on my planet as a child was the "pornification" of children. Now I am not referring to child pornography. I am specifically referring to parents allowing their children to dress like sluts, porn stars, and gang members. This seems to be mostly a female child phenomenon. Why do any of you think its cute for your 8 year old daughter to be buying bras and g-strings? Why would any of you think it cute if your 10 year old looks like she stepped off the police lineup with a bunch of hookers? How many of you really want your 14 year old daughter to be wearing a skirt so short, it barely goes below her crotch? Since when did you decide that a boy can wear his pants half way down his legs and let his boxer-short clad rear end show? Why is it OK to let your kids watch trash on TV where they see adults dress like prostitutes and gang members and then encourage that by buying them the same kind of clothing? Do you really have no regard for your kids? I don't get it. I really don't get it.

This planet is a large source of amusement, astonishment, shock, and sometimes even pleasure. But this planet is not the one I grew up on. And the most amazing thing of all is it seems like the more you tinker with the system, the worse it gets. When will the majority of you wake up and realize you are not fixing things, you are in reality the ones who broke them? Sometimes I wish I could get back to my home planet, this one is broken.



Copyright 2007, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)