OPINION:
Ancient Chinese and Greek cultures respected and revered the wisdom of their elderly, prominent figures 60 years of age and older providing guiding influence. Our society would profit from referencing knowledge and truth derived from such civilizations. Instead we seem to be taking the opposite approach, with some even suggesting 16-year-olds be granted the vote. The average teenager is given to behavior which can hardly be described as rational; indeed, the human brain is not fully formed until age 25.
Of course those recommending “child suffrage” recognize this fact. Their objective is to manipulate juvenile approval of that which most mature minds would reject: Everything ought to be “free,” the property earned by others should be confiscated and redistributed, the entire population of the world invited should be allowed to move here unimpeded, etc.
This problem finds genesis at an even lower level. We have embraced Dr. Spock’s self-admitted error: Let the child do what he/she wishes absent direction or discipline. And we have become a child-dominated culture. Juveniles now tell college administrators and compliant professors how to behave, think and speak; the resistant lose their jobs. The student instructs the instructor; the patient prescribes medication for the asylum doctor.
Strangest of all, children proposing to rule an Orwellian “animal farm” (painless to themselves) have no problem looting and burning, and inflicting pain and death upon others — and they would do so absent the impediment of law (viewed as an evil annoyance).
Children (and those with childlike minds) have a propensity to act upon impulse absent consideration of outcome. These misguided malcontents need remedial post-parenting more than they need college.
FRANK GARDINER
North Provo, Utah
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