Posted on 06/26/2014 6:01:09 PM PDT by Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense
Bear with me as I relate an incident I witnessed a couple of years ago; an important point lies at the end of this true story. I was standing in the checkout line at a Barnes & Noble bookstore when I noticed a mother pushing her two toddlers through the store in one of those tandem strollers. One child began moaning, not loudly, but persistently. I’ve raised two children, and I’m familiar with the sounds they can make to express their feelings. This wasn’t an expression of pain, hunger, tiredness, or any kind of stress that I could sense. The child almost sounded bored. The moaning continued. The mother then handed him a bag of Cheetos. Well that shut the little tyke up immediately as he dug into his tasty snack. Then the other toddler started making the exact same noise and immediately got an identical bag of Cheetos for his non-verbal effort.
I’m about to use a word I’ve never used before: infantilize. It means to treat someone as a child or in a way that denies their maturity in age or experience. It’s become the preferred tactic our government uses to manipulate the public. Worse, many citizens have consented to this manipulation. And even worse still, as a trend over time, it’s become conditioned behavior passed down from generation to generation.
This is not some mental construct conjured from my imagination. Let me take you back to October 15th, 1992, Richmond, Virginia where a presidential debate was taking place. A question came from an unidentified audience member who became notoriously known as “the pony tail guy.” You might remember the question:
"I ask the three of you, how can we, as symbolically the children of the future president, expect the two of you, the three of you to meet our needs?”
It was a question that perfectly voiced the dysfunctional relationship that’s been developing for decades between citizen and government. Not only has government been treating us like children, many Americans have come to expect that treatment as a matter of course. I hesitate to use the word, but we’ve become infantilized.
When every human need becomes the responsibility of the State, the fundamental skills we associate with ordinary survival are no longer required. Food, shelter, clothing, and more can be easily acquired with little effort and little or no cost. More recently, another basic survival skill—maintaining and improving one’s health—is not only sponsored by the government, it’s compulsory.
There are those who will tell you that all of this is a good thing. After all, everybody is being taken care of, aren’t they? The downside, of course, is that many Americans have lost their basic ability to survive. Just like a completely dependent infant, they’re lost without adult supervision.
Every time there’s a disaster where people need some kind of emergency assistance, the evidence is seen. The citizens most dependent on government are always the ones who suffer the most. Not because they’re poor or underprivileged, but because they don’t know how to fend for themselves when circumstances make it necessary. Figuring out how to survive in an emergency situation doesn’t seem to be part of the basic skillset of many Americans.
I suppose you can take some kind of demented comfort in the knowledge that no matter what skills you may lack—be it reading, writing, or even speaking—and no matter how tragically incompetent you may be, you'll be provided for. You don't even have to do or say anything. All you need to do is make some kind of pitiful noise, and the State hands you a little bag of goodies.
That "pony tail guy" may have been more prescient than we know. As the “president's children” we're living in a country that’s been gradually turning into one big state-supported day care center. And we’ll tolerate this utter lack of individual independence as long meal times are served on schedule.
That’s the debate where Bush Senior famously looked at his watch when Clinton was going way over his allotted time for answers - but it got spun as Bush wanting to get away or something. I still remember that moment, and was so frustrated that Bush, a real live war hero on the stage with a draft dodger and Perot (who hated the Bush family and stood to gain billions of dollars if Hillarycare happened because of Perot Data Systems tie-in with Medicare), didn’t essentially challenge that dweeb’s manhood and ask what the the PTG was doing to take care of his own.
The same can be said for their ability to discern the difference between a Citizen of the United States and citizen of the world.
Are you from T-nation?
Sorry, wrong guy.
Imposing infantilization on adults using government or corporate power is a crime against humanity.
No less.
Between adults, it is grounds for the permanent end of any friendship and the establishment of enemy status.
No less.
Why? Because another name for imposed infantilization is slavery - a crime against the human soul, and an attempt to turn a human being into property.
But it’s even worse than slavery, because infantilization is done under the implication of a mother’s love. So infantilization is not only the imposition of slavery, it’s the rape of motherhood.
Another name for it is Feminism.
Denton Walthall didn’t remain ‘unidentified’ for long.
I call these folks children-by-choice. Not only do they prefer to whimper and whine to mommy government for their every need, they happily disconnect from any responsibility for their own actions. Accountability? Nope. Not their fault.
It would be merely pathetic if this behavior weren't so destructive. These people intentionally act like children and vote like children, expect others to parent and restrain them, yet they demand respect as adults, plopping themselves down at the grown-up table.
That's also the debate where Clinton gave three different answers to essentially the same question -- he would a.) spend more, b.) spend less, c.) spend the same.
Nobody called him on it.
“I call these folks children-by-choice. Not only do they prefer to whimper and whine to mommy government for their every need, they happily disconnect from any responsibility for their own actions. Accountability? Nope. Not their fault.”
“It would be merely pathetic if this behavior weren’t so destructive. These people intentionally act like children and vote like children, expect others to parent and restrain them, yet they demand respect as adults, plopping themselves down at the grown-up table.”
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Dead on the money, act like a spoiled little monster and then expect to be respected as an adult simply because they exist. The average twelve year old used to be more mature than some of the forty year olds I know.
These nitwits want to be taken seriously but they deserve to be shunned and shut out until they perchance grow the h*ll up.
They’ve been enabled and their whining rewarded, just as a toddler learns to crank up the temper tantrums if the screaming eventually works.
These are not a free people. It’s not their nature and spirit to be free.
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