Ways to live your life
Apr. 15th, 2019 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrThinking about the vaccination arguments and other things brought to mind Kant's "Categorical Imperative".
One way to state it amounts to "what would happen if *everyone* took the action you want to take?"
Apply that to vaccination, and the answer is starkly obvious.
In other cases it's not so obvious, but only because people tend to limit their thinking.
A lot of arguments about religion only make sense from the viewpoint of the dominant religion. If you change the premise from we don't want *their* religion thrown in our face to "we don't want *any* religion thrown in our face, then applying the Imperative will make the followers of the majority religion in the area *really* uncomfortable.If not outraged.
Similar things apply to a lot of racial, gender and sexuality issues.
On another topic, I was watching an episode of NCIS (I'm way behind on watching them) and a late teens (about to graduate high school) character had something they'd worked all summer for destroyed by a disapproving parent.
This is one of number of parent/child relationship/behavior things that *really* annoys me. Especially since in this case it wasn't anything that it was *wrong* to have, just something for an activity the parent didn't want the kid involved in (dancing).
There is something *very* wrong with a world where parents can destroy something like that and *not* be liable for restitution.
The whole idea that children don't have property rights is morally and ethically questionable.
Likewise all the arguments about parents restricting things their kids are allowed to learn, much less some medical decisions.
Your right to control your child ends at the point where it could harm them. Failing to get them treatment for illness is an obvious case. Vaccinations are less obvious.
Keeping them ignorant or worse teaching them things counter to reality is even less obvious but frankly it can be just as damaging. Not just things like alternate "theories" to evolution, but also things like no sex ed, or abstinence-only sex-ed.
If I was dictator, you could teach your kids creationism, etc, but they'd still have to pass science classes that *weren't* forced to cater to your religious views.
And something like Dutch (or is it Danish) sex ed classes that start in kindergarten by teaching about healthy relationship would be required too.
One way to state it amounts to "what would happen if *everyone* took the action you want to take?"
Apply that to vaccination, and the answer is starkly obvious.
In other cases it's not so obvious, but only because people tend to limit their thinking.
A lot of arguments about religion only make sense from the viewpoint of the dominant religion. If you change the premise from we don't want *their* religion thrown in our face to "we don't want *any* religion thrown in our face, then applying the Imperative will make the followers of the majority religion in the area *really* uncomfortable.If not outraged.
Similar things apply to a lot of racial, gender and sexuality issues.
On another topic, I was watching an episode of NCIS (I'm way behind on watching them) and a late teens (about to graduate high school) character had something they'd worked all summer for destroyed by a disapproving parent.
This is one of number of parent/child relationship/behavior things that *really* annoys me. Especially since in this case it wasn't anything that it was *wrong* to have, just something for an activity the parent didn't want the kid involved in (dancing).
There is something *very* wrong with a world where parents can destroy something like that and *not* be liable for restitution.
The whole idea that children don't have property rights is morally and ethically questionable.
Likewise all the arguments about parents restricting things their kids are allowed to learn, much less some medical decisions.
Your right to control your child ends at the point where it could harm them. Failing to get them treatment for illness is an obvious case. Vaccinations are less obvious.
Keeping them ignorant or worse teaching them things counter to reality is even less obvious but frankly it can be just as damaging. Not just things like alternate "theories" to evolution, but also things like no sex ed, or abstinence-only sex-ed.
If I was dictator, you could teach your kids creationism, etc, but they'd still have to pass science classes that *weren't* forced to cater to your religious views.
And something like Dutch (or is it Danish) sex ed classes that start in kindergarten by teaching about healthy relationship would be required too.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 07:00 am (UTC)(or should that be *curtseys*? :-)
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 10:29 am (UTC)They want to make laws allowing them to display their religious icons and say prayers in the state government, then guess what, so can the Satanists. You wanna hand out chick tracts in school, well then the Satanists can hand out condoms printed with their message.
and yeah, there is some very toxic aspects to American societies ideas on parenting... starting with the idea that basically parents own their children.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 10:44 am (UTC)Alas, we managed to lose things like the old protections for apprentices and the like.
For some fun, go back and re-read Heinlein's The Star Beast then read his comments about it in Grumbles From the Grave
His editor was complaining about the various bits involving children's rights. Heinlein pointed out that what he'd written was the way then current laws worked, they just called them different things.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 01:54 pm (UTC)My room mates don't own their kid-he has the right to a lot of things most American kids don't; they don't force him to do anything (Includking hugging people whether he knows them or not) if ye doesn't want to.
They also don't restrict his learning or his play unless it would seriously harm him (That is do permanent damage) so he has the freedom to explore a lot of different things. I like that about them, so hard.
-Fallon~