We decide for the next seven generations. –Iroquois Confederacy
Morality Counts. Character Counts. Moral Character Counts. Thanks in great part to easy access to social media, today, more than ever before in our history the moral character not only of individuals but the moral character of collectives (think: The U.S.A.) has moved to the forefront of many conversations. Much of this conversation is rooted in anxiety. This anxiety is fed by a major tap root, the ‘fate of our children.’
We have deep concerns about our children and their future – including the development of their moral character – as individuals and as a ‘collective.’ During our discussions we like to announce that our anxiety is important because ‘children are the future!’ The ‘truth’ of this is obvious. The other ‘truth’ is that this is a national cliché. Sadly, it is also code phrase.
Before I expand on this code phrase I need to step aside and share a bit of my cynicism with you. What’s the cliché here? ‘I want to be fully transparent.’ My cynicism, sadly, has recently increased in response to a number of voters in school districts across our nation who recently voted down tax proposals that would have directly benefitted public schools and CHILDREN!
To return to our topic.
It is true, ‘Children are the future!’ And our future is, indeed, uncertain – although if we continue to follow certain paths the children of our children will not have much to work with. Now, Gentle Reader, I also invite you to consider that this favorite phrase, ‘Children are the future!’ is also a code for speaking about ourselves (which might be one reason why voters can guilt-free deny our public schools the funds they need – it is really not about the children at all).
‘Children are the future!’ is a linguistic device. Through this device ‘WE’ talk about our own desires, commitments and ideals – we talk about ‘OUR’ world; we are not talking about THE world our children will inherit.
We, adults, compete with one another about what is truly in ‘OUR’ best interest – we live in the trickle-down illusion that what is, today, best for us will, tomorrow, be best for the children. History tell us – oh how I wish history would truly ‘teach’ us – that we are living an illusion. We deny, among other things, history’s lesson.
Children become an ideological weapon that we wildly wield. Children become a ‘tool’ (we are still immersed in the Mechanical Metaphor in our Country) and they also become an ‘asset’ (our current major Cultural Metaphor is the Banking Metaphor). Some of these assets are more valuable than others – hence our ability to vote down the funds that will help our schools. As ‘tools’ and ‘assets’ our children become weapons for our politicians and their agendas.
In loudly claiming that ‘We put children first!’ we actually put them last – we dehumanize them (‘tools’ and ‘assets’) and we use them as ‘weapons’ in our ideological wars (I almost wrote: idiot-illogical, which is what our ideological wars are truly rooted in).
Still…
We become our thoughts. –Aristotle
Searcher-Seeker 