Easter is when a mythical bunny disseminates colourful eggs and copious amounts of chocolate in a quasi Jesus/ Spring celebration. Makes me wonder why parents fill children’s squishy minds with such tales.
Santa, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, tales of magical kingdoms and fanciful creatures are the diet fed to the young and addle minded. Parents feed and propagate these myths by borrowing against their very credibility.
They dissuade healthy scepticism by providing tangible proof to this these unimaginable hoaxes in the form of milk and cookies, chocolate eggs, money under the pillow alongside reams of perfunctory lies. They then strangely drink in their offspring’s wonderment.
Concepts of nurture and sound foundations for these delicate creatures are pushed aside for deceitful frivolity.
Children come to understand the truth through their parents. It is not at their behest to be lied to. No more than it is the dog that chases the phantom ball you pretended to throw. Some find this vicariously amusing and enjoyable but is this not a double edged sword? Have they not besmirched their credibility and created a symbiotic reality with things that go bump in the night?
The Boogeyman, ghost and monsters are no longer ridiculous figments in a world of science but actual possibilities in the co-existing fantasy world confirmed by parent’s words and deeds. Hard to comfort with compromised reason why monsters don’t exist in the middle of the night to a frightened child.
Parent’s position as guardian of all things true and the repository of absolute knowledge has created a conflicting world bereft of reason and logic. What further manifestations of this early betrayal of trust can result?
Would a child not be equally excited to rip open presents on “Naughty or Nice Day” where Mommy and Daddy preside over rewards of an unknown nature? Or “Chocolate Day”? Or “Proud of You Day”?
Is there not enough wonderment in the real world to sustain amazement? We have built pyramids that have lasted thousands of years, a wall that can be seen from space and rockets that have travelled to the moon. We went from caves to skyscrapers, from ridiculously superstitious to splitting the atom and from prey to the top of the food chain.
Perhaps part of the manifestation of impregnating this tomfoolery in the early stages of the defenceless is an adult prone to idiocy.
Amazingly adults seek Fortune Tellers living in trailer parks, to divine their fate through silly little cards. Someone should’ve told them the truth about reality.
I’ll bet there are quite a few beliefs entrenched in fairytales.
See ya next week top of the food chain!
-Life is complicated and far from perfect, but it's still great.
Good piece, bru! And you're right - where do these fairy tales end? Children are so fresh-faced to the world that you can literally teach them to be anyway you want. I like what Jacques Fresco (venus project) has to say about this. His only truth is that which can be proved...not one's opinion.
ReplyDeleteBrian Watkins (also venus project):
"In other ways, however, I believe that growing up in such a religious environment caused me a great disservice. I was conditioned to believe that my way was the only way. That sin = X and that X = hell. I was ingrained with a sense of judgment, one that I still struggle with today. I went through spells in my life where I felt completely alone and misunderstood because I was convinced that I “got it” and other people didn’t. They were stupid, sinful, “unloving.” So ironic. I destroyed friendships and ostracized incredible people because I stood on my pedestal and condemned others. I believed I had it all figured out. I got life and God got me. He was down with me because I was so hardcore for him. Such silliness. Thinking back to some specific moments in my life, I can’t help but laugh. I had completely identified with an ideology, with a rigid belief system."
or to paraphrase the great Doug Stanhope..."if you had never even heard of the Bible before and you just stumbled accross it in a used bookstore somewhere, do you think you would base your entire belief system on it? no, of course not...that's why they have to pump it into your head when the top of your skull is still soft and you're still "Santa-eligible", then they cork it in there with a whole bunch of fear."
ReplyDeleteSanta-eligible...I believe that sums it up.
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