From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sat Sep 20 2003 - 22:56:46 BST
DMB, all:
> Let me begin by saying that I think Platt is a cave man. I think its
> pretty clear that Pirsig is NOT saying we ought to beat our children.
> There are many forms of discipline, including physical retraint, that
> are effective but do not resort to violence. The fact is that the kind
> of parenting styles that includes violence and harsh rules has exactly
> the opposite effect. It creates violent and harsh people. (The
> psychological data that supports this claim is included in the
> psychology paper I wrote about last month. Interested parties can find
> it under the title, "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social
> Cognition". It was published not too long ago in the American Psychology
> Association's "Psychological Bulletin", which is an academic journal.)
> It might seem that making a cause and effect relationship between
> parenting styles and the rise of fascism would be too much of a stretch,
> but the evidence is fairly overwhelming. So go ahead. If you believe
> that there are too few fascists and not enough violence in the world, go
> ahead. Beat your children.
Let me begin by saying that I think DMB is con man. What he fails to
report is that the authors of the study he cites added a disclaimer
saying the report "does not mean that conservatism is pathological or
that conservative beliefs are necessarily false." In other words, the
evidence is far from "overwhelming" as DMB claims.
As the conservative columnist George Will pointed out, "The professors
(of the study) have ideas; the rest of us have emanations of our
psychological needs and neuroses." In other words, they're hypocrites.
Incidentally, I wonder what sort of "physical restraint" DMB has in
mind that doesn't lay a hand on an unruly kid?
Platt
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