kramerfan86
Deity
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Is there any evidence at all of attempts to convince children the government is god?
Rep. Stephen Fincher: If the Poor Want Their Children to Eat Sell them as Slaves.
- Thread starter FriendlyFire
- Start date
It's impossible NOT to indoctrinate children at some level. My daughter has a completely irrational love of both dinosaurs and robots now, all due to my equally irrational love of both. She also asks for The Simpsons every night at 6PM, despite her understanding of the show beng limited to "the daddy funny, boy naughty." She also literally yells at random strangers she sees littering - "pick it up, you naughty!" - and I have to watch my language around her since she called a person driving recklessly a "" yesterday. She also called a girl who pushed her over at pre-school a word that rhymes with witch last week, which is Grandpa's fault.
Children are like sponges, they will pick up on just about everything around them. It is impossible to have an education system that does not teach morality, no matter how hard you try. Otherwise the kids will be beating each other to death in the playground over who gets to be Michaelangelo in the Ninja Turtle game they're playing. The trick is to attempt to find a system of indoctrination that correlates with values that the vast majority of people agree are good ones to have; you shouldn't rape people, stealing is wrong, you should probably poo in the toilet rather than your sleeping friend's mouth.
Such options are limited in my country, even with the recent addition of ethics classes as a possible replacement to the scripture classes offered in schools. I would imagine they're limited in the US as well, though, as peter grimes said, downtown is the person to ask. Government indoctrination, which, in this country at least, is mostly secular and too disorganised to make a real effort at turning our little monsters into bloodthirsty little Aryans, seems significantly superior to the alternatives, religious indoctrination (the Church of Scientology has recently attempted to infiltrate primary schools in this country, including in my home town in Queensland) or corporate indoctrination ("if you have two Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you?").
Isn't the Japanese Emperor divine?
kramerfan86
Deity
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Honestly at times I completely forget Japan still has an emperor. Its not quite like the british royal family where I hear about him all the time.Isn't the Japanese Emperor divine?
Hirohito renounced his godhood after WWII, so nope.Isn't the Japanese Emperor divine?
Hirohito renounced his godhood after WWII, so nope.
Okay, I cannot find that things I learned today thread. I was gonna put your quote in there! Oh well, a thank you here will have to suffice.
You can't just check your subscriptions? Yeah, Hirohito waited a little while after the war, but once the majority of the troops were back home and things had settled down a bit, he renounced his godhood. While this doesn't necessarily mean the Emperor isn't treated as a god - especially by the far-right in Japanese politics - the Imperial family no longer claims descent from Amaterasu. They're simply constitutional monarchs now.Okay, I cannot find that things I learned today thread. I was gonna put your quote in there! Oh well, a thank you here will have to suffice.
One cannot renounce that which was never legitimately owned. AllHirohito renounced his godhood after WWII, so nope.
My state school teachers were anti-government if anything
(that is, criticising anyone who was in power; not believing government should be abolished. They don't let you be teachers unless you are sane.)
This doesn't even happen, since you've still got the option of home-schooling or private schooling. If otoh you just flatout refuse your children any education, then you are violating their human right and the government is quite right to treat you as a criminal.
Good girl.
Competency, on the other hand, seems to be optional. My teachers were mostly the same, but I also had a whackjob anti-communist history teacher that believed in the domino theory. Boy did I love trolling her.
I didn't even realise that the euphemism for masturbation my daughter used on an unsuspecting motorist didn't make that post until you quoted it.
She can't be that good. She keeps stealing toys from pre-school. She stashes them in her pillow-case, so I have no idea until I go to wash it, or catch her playing with them. Children are sneaky.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
It's weird to me that someone who believes that the state doesn't spend nearly enough time killing people should be so concerned about children learning to revere it. With the sort of regime he wants to see put in place, that's just good survival instincts.
There's also an interesting psychology involved where there's a tight conflation between education and indoctrination. I mean, we know they can both occur and there is a point where the two can become confused. But, we probably all draw a fuzzy line in a different place, there.
Okay, I cannot find that things I learned today thread. I was gonna put your quote in there! Oh well, a thank you here will have to suffice.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=496661
Farm Boy
run boy run
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Ah, you're staying close to the thread idea. Kudos and whatnot. I suppose insofar as home schooling is an option that can yield acceptable levels of education if usually subpar levels of socialization sure, that's a pretty good escape valve so long as it's actually a feasible and realistic option.
That begs a pretty important question though. Because "this doesn't even happen" as you put it is demonstrably false. Repeat truants are ankle bracelet-ed by the police. If they remain truant the parents are indeed criminally culpable. So, why are these parents not homeschooling their kids rather than becoming criminals? I suppose you could just say that they're all deadbeat parents deserving of jail time but I think you'd be wrong. I think what you'll instead find is a bunch of parents who for a variety of possible reasons have been unable to control an aspect of their kid's behavior in his or her pre/teenage years. They're probably also not in a position to realistically pay for a private school or home school their kid. It's not that easy to home school, it takes a significant investment of time, and what do you suggest a single parent that might be working 2 or 3 part time jobs do? Go to jail for "violating their children's human rights?" The theory just isn't clean once you start pounding the pavement. It's very much like TF's coercion-based argumentation on wage labor earlier. "You have options! Private schools that cost 4 times your yearly income or you can just stop working to teach your kid on your own(when perhaps you aren't very educated yourself)." - those aren't really option options. Those are quite often crap.
Ajidica
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So what does the Japanese Emperor do now? At least with the British and other European royal families, the nobility get trotted out every so often to do some feel-good nonpartisan activity and then are corralled back into their golden kennels until next time.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Realistically, it's more like fourteen hundred years, and even then only if you adopt a generous definition of "unbroken line". There's quite a lot of examples of emperor's being ousted by rivals, it's just that the new guy always came from the same family. It only really settled down in the 15th century, roundabout the time they became politically irrelevant, and even then it occasionally jumped around when an emperor died without close heirs.
He visits WWE shows? Occasionally he'll visit a war memorial or something, but that's about it.
To be fair, it's not like the Japanese Emperors have ever done much of anything. They were very early overthrown by the Shogunate, and kept merely as figureheads. After the Meiji Restoration the Emperors regained a little power, but not very much. The Imperial family did distinguish itself, notably in the IJA, but not the Emperors personally. So it's not like the new situation is really any different, it's simply that the Emperor's divinity is no longer legally recognised. The Shinto religion still considers him a god, regardless of the Emperor's own beliefs. The Emperors are basically pampered prisoners.
My goodness, it's like you don't even read Traitorfish's posts. I don't even know what to do with this.
