A whopping 83 percent of Americans think there should be a law that prohibits kids 9 and under from playing at the park unsupervised, despite the fact that most of them no doubt grew up doing just that.
What's more: 62 percent feel the same way about 12-year-olds. They would like to criminalize all pre-teenagers playing outside on their own (and, I guess, arrest their no-good parents).
It was a nice civilization while it lasted. Really it was.
The former flames of (US) liberty are now resembling a smoldering ash pit. What isn't thoroughly outsourced to the state (education, 2/3 of health care, transportation infrastructure, 80% of mortgages) is either regulated up the ying-yang or a homogenized progressive cheer-leading squad for growing leviathan (media, greens, entertainment, corporate rent-seekers). The 83% figure confirms that "conservative" is simply an adverb to describe the rigor in ceding liberty.
Having recently returned to the deranged dominion from neighboring Washington State where I was living for the last 8 years, one of the oddities I found in the US was the federal school (free) lunch program which has been around for decades. That program has morphed into 3 meals for kids meeting certain standards, which, thanks to costly determination criteria (where I was living) had grown to three free meals a day for all who so desire.
Were it not for the First and Second Amendments in the US Constitution, Canada could legitimately claim that her embers were glowing brighter.
Posted by: John Chittick | Friday, August 22, 2014 at 01:54 PM
Untergang and all that:
http://cdfai3ds.wordpress.com/?s=untergang
My parents let me take the Tube and buses in London on my own when seven. 'Twas nice...
Mark
Ottawa
Posted by: markottawa | Friday, August 22, 2014 at 04:22 PM
I was kicked out of the house and told to get outside most of my childhood. I'd sit on the steps, freezing usually (it was Ontario. I was bullied and molested by all kinds of vermin in the neighbourhood. I never bothered to tell my parents. I knew they didn't care. They threw me out of the house to get me out of the way. I never did that to my kids.
Posted by: Cher | Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 11:44 AM
PS it got worse the older I got. By twelve, the bullying was more violent and the assaults more sexual. I was finally old enough to get a job and get out of the house the day after I graduated from high school. Safe at last and allowed to stay inside.
Posted by: Cher | Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 11:46 AM
JC's usual drama and tears aside, America is really a freer place than 40 years ago. Canada is really freer than America too-our surveillance state is not yet that out of hand and our cops usually aren't as savage. They have some advantages but I think we come out on top.
I don't necessarily trust this poll and I wonder if you would have gotten different results from polling past generations.
Posted by: Cytotoxic | Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 05:04 PM