Children

Child soldiers in Africa represent the traditional cultural use of children as slaves or pawns by older generations. The more sophisticated method is compulsory military service in countries from Israel to Switzerland. Under the guise of teaching children useful skills, older generations impose their values on the young. They propagate violence, racism and avarice. These are not the fine values their religions pretend to represent, but they are the actual values which are transmitted.

 

Human beings are among the species which enslave their offspring. Ants and bees designate birth-specified roles to their offspring. Some large predatory species live in isolation after their brief rearing by the female parent. Elephants maintain a complex female-organized society which slowly incorporates the young with patient education.

 

The developed world has seen a quiet revolution in human child rearing. Voluntary military service is one product of this change. Holding religious perpetrators of child abuse accountable is another. In affluent circles, producing fewer children raised by older parents is a process which allows for greater creativity in child education. Children are treated and respected as individuals, not clones to be exploited for service, affection and loyalty. These children are more likely to be exposed to travel and diversity from a positive perspective.

 

The downside of the precocious and badly behaving child is outweighed by the liberated and less fearful mind of a growing human being who will shape the future of the species. I question if capitalism, which inevitably constructs and maintains pyramids of limited privilege supported by wide bases of poverty, will provide these liberated children in large enough numbers to avert disaster for the species as it overpopulates and wastes Earth's bounty.

 

The key to fostering the revolution in child development is the equitable provision of high-quality public education starting in preschool. The current trend to exploit children as consumers from an early age while cutting taxes which fund public education bodes badly. Riding an urban subway when schools are closing for the day will educate the uninitiated Libertarian to the results of this trend. It isn't pretty.