Reply #109: "analyses of individual "bentness" are a circle-jerk leading no where" [View All]

Good point for us in our roles as citizens. These people exist and we have to continue to try to stay aware of what's truly in the common good and is moral, and influence our gov't accordingly, no matter their numbers and actions. And yes, power politics controls the anti-democratic agenda, not the personal characteristics of those who carry it forward.

However, in our role as parents or educators, it's important to do what we can in the development of the children we affect to influence them to care about those who are different, and to ground themselves with their better instincts. We also absolutely must never penalize them for the instinct to ask questions. (I mean of course one teaches a child the hurtful consequences of saying loudly, "Mommy, why is that lady so fat?", or some such.) People who are taught that asking questions is unacceptably offensive to authority, parental and other, are on their first steps to devaluing democratic participation.