Quote from the book "Peaceful Parenting" by Stefan Molyneux:
We have terms for sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, fatphobia, classism – the list these days is virtually endless. Fear and hatred of the “other,” it is said, leads to hateful language, violence, terrorism – war, even.
For all our modern moral wisdoms, one word remains conspicuously absent from our endless patrolling of language, exclusion and contempt.
Where is the word “childism”?
Why do we not even have a word for prejudice against children?
“Ah,” you may say, “this is because society treasures its children, devotes endless energies to training and raising its children – therefore it would make no more sense to have a word called ‘childism’ than it would to have a word called ‘loveism.’ We cannot be prejudiced against that which we love!”
Interesting…
But – is it true?
It is certainly true that society claims to worship and love its children, and does devote endless energies into training and raising them. What do we always hear?
“The children are our future, our heritage, our worlds, the purpose of our life and being, the foundation of our civilization…” – you name it!
The late singer Whitney Houston had a famous song “The Greatest Love of All” which started off thus:
I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be…
Sadly, Whitney was a victim of childhood sexual abuse who grew up to be a drug addict – enacting all the inevitable abuse and neglect on her own daughter, who, like her mother, also died in a bathtub with a large number of drugs in her system.
Whitney sang about virtue, but lived a deeply broken and destructive life.
But – what is the general theory?
Well – that children are loved by society, and therefore we would never need a word to describe society’s prejudice against its own children!
If you love chocolate, how can you be prejudiced against chocolate?
If you love your wife, by definition you cannot hate and exclude her.
What on earth are you talking about, Stef?
Well, philosophy is all about skepticism – and the longer the claim has been going on – and the more widespread it is – the more philosophers are inclined to question it.
The institution of slavery was universally accepted and practiced through the world, for all of history – until moral philosophers and theologians eventually questioned it.
The modern world is founded on skepticism of traditionally-accepted “wisdom.”
Science, technology, engineering, medicine – these are all founded on skepticism of formerly-accepted “absolute truths.”
The battles against exclusion were all founded on skepticism of the accepted wisdom of excluding other races, sexes, classes and groups.
Reason demands that we judge others – and ourselves – by deeds, not words.
If a man claims to passionately value a woman, then ghosts her after sex, would we accept his protestations of affection?
No – surely we would judge his actions, rather than his words.
Good words often camouflage bad actions.
Con artists charm us before robbing us; seducers woo us before exploiting and abandoning us. Politicians promise us heaven, then deliver hell. People pretend to be injured to bring you close, then rob you blind. Scammers pretend to want to help you, then steal from you.
And – believe it or not – criminals generally claim to be innocent, even when guilty.
Imagine a world where mere statements equaled objective truth.
If you fail an exam, but you tell your teacher that you passed it, then she would have to adjust your mark!
If you fail to pay your taxes, but then inform the government that you did in fact pay them, that would have to be accepted.
If you were caught shoplifting, you could tell the store owner that you are not stealing, and he would have to let you go.
You could claim to be a doctor, and no one could disagree with you.
As a toddler, you could be caught with chocolate all over your face, but justifiably deny that you had ever touched any chocolate!
If you were tired of making mortgage payments, you could simply phone the bank and tell them that you in fact owned the house free and clear, and all would be well!
Society would crumble in about forty-eight hours if mere statements were always accepted as truth.
No, we have standards of evidence and empiricism and logical consistency and proof – in order to separate liars exploiting morality from honest people pursuing virtue.
What do we say, if we are rational?
“This is your claim, what is the truth?”
This is the essence not of just philosophy, but society, rationality, functionality – and survival.
Imagine a primitive hunter coming home empty-handed, but claiming to have felled a giant deer. Would anyone eat?
Imagine a man in the jungle being hunted by a tiger – could he save himself by closing his eyes and repeating over and over, “there is no tiger, there is no tiger”?
Of course not – these examples are almost too foolish to mention.
We all understand that we only empower and embolden liars by refusing to look for reason and evidence.
Society claims to love its children – very well, let us look for reason and evidence...
They use and abuse children in this society. From gooberment to secret societies, it's on children's backs they make their money, abuse them in these factions for their innocent powerful life force, damage their psyche's to program them to be good little prisoners, then claim it's for their own good, and brings out their abilities....it's a very sick system...it's actually opposite of what they say.
Imagine how powerful and wonderful our lives would of been had we been raised like the powerful beings we are, to build our skills in psionics and to only eat organic and clean food, breath clean air, drink clean water....we'd be pretty amazing. but society within the first 24 hours jabs the child with vaccines, and then wonder why we have so many autistic children. It's just sick...I know most parents want to do the right thing and best for their child....except for those that are in these secret societies. We'd have 'golden children' if we could just be free of all the chemical and invasion of our lives with these people or more like the nonhumans who control us like cattle....although I hear they don't like smokers....I guess it don't taste so good....which is why they love children.