Thinking about Columbine

This is written as the first kids are being buried in Littleton.

The last time one of these nightmares happened, it was disgusting to watch all the people with agendas trying to muscle in. The right-to-lifers blamed it on abortion. The animal-rightsers blamed it on meat-eating; others blamed it on animal rights. I even read one letter from someone blaming it on Bill Clinton's sex life. Maybe I'm doing the same thing -- I hope not.

Blaming Modern Culture

Solutions -- if there are solutions -- will be hard to come by. But we're already hearing a rising chorus blaming it on modern culture itself. We hear that it's the music, the Internet, the movies, the clothes. This leads quickly into a plea to take us back into some imaginary past where kids did exactly what adult authority figures told them. Take away their chosen music, take away their chosen clothes, discipline ... discipline ... discipline.

Get real.

It's a rather trite observation that kids blow up because that's the only way they can feel powerful and free. So our obvious problem is to make it possible for them to achieve those feelings without having to hurt anyone. And what could be more ass-backwards than to try to solve the problem by making kids feel powerless and controlled?

A Different World

We have to understand -- as most modern parents already do -- that the authoritarian approach to childrearing was geared to a world that no longer exists. In a world where the rules and the roles were rigid, the most logical way to bring kids up was to bang them on the head until they were convinced that they had no choice about things. If you were born to be a peasant, you were going to be peasant -- and that was just that.

Needless to say, the world doesn't work that way anymore. Modern society has achieved a degree of freedom -- for both adults and kids -- which would have been inconceivable only a few decades ago. There's no changing that -- despite what people may tell you --and there's no hiding it from the kids. (Teenagers can be real hard to lie to.)

So whatever we find to do about these tragedies will have to start with the realization that the kids are basically free individuals -- choosing their own clothes, their own music, and in the long run their own values. Parents and other adults have to provide guidance, but they can't really impose rigid control. (Not that you should let your kids build bombs, of course.)

In the end, I don't know what the solutions are. But here are some links to get you started:

We have a page of links on Youth Issues.

It may or may not be the right solution, but we also have a page on Gun Control.

And, of course, you can check out our Home page.

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