As IF Times

link Lenore Skenazy: Whatever Happened to Walking to School? – WSJ.com.

A sentiment which is probably shared by most of my admittedly older generation.  But I also add that we chopped wood, fed the animals and drew water from the well before our mile long jaunt to school.  Uphill of course, both ways.  In a related article from a  little while back,       http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37399539/ns/health-behavior/      there is an obvious pattern of smothering the current generation of children and ironically creating young people that are ill-equipped to deal with life’s vicissitudes.

At some point over the past few generations, it became unseemly to make kids endure ‘hardship’, whatever that definition means.  For some kids, hardship may mean working at a part time job to help with school costs, whereas for others, it may mean appearing at school in the BMW instead of the Mercedes.  The consequence of over parenting is a society of people somewhat insulated from the realities of life.  Suffering is an abstract notion. 

Kids should suffer.  In all of the animal kingdom, at some point, the progeny gets pushed out into the cold hard world and the cycle repeats itself.  You don’t see birds bringing  worms to feed middle aged birds in the nest.  You don’t see lionesses bringing  freshly caught wildebeest to teenage lions at home.  Unlike the natural animal world, humans, at least in western society, have moved towards sheltering their children from every imaginable event that can cause harm.  The result is a world full of people like Prince Charles of Windsor, wholly out of touch with reality and insisting on the Grey Poupon at dinner.

It’s really debatable whether the world is a more dangerous place for kids now than in the ’50’s or 60’s when kids were allowed to be kids and not faberge eggs requiring delicate handling.  It’s a wonder that Johnson and Johnson stays in business given that collapsing skinned knee incidents must mean the implosion of band-aid demand.  Nowadays, a cut finger means a trip to the local hospital, a fee to the HMO and a week’s rest in bed.

Admittedly, my comments are a bit self serving.  I’m annoyed that the charming days of cheap child labour to mow lawns, paint garages and washing cars are gone. As well, the cleaning of chimneys has to be done by hired professionals.   Oh well, maybe they’ll be kind to us when choosing our retirement homes.

link Prince Charles urges British families to snub the bathtub | Mail Online.

Please somebody stop it!  It’s as if some aliens from another world spiked the water supply of the earth and caused massive stupidity to break out among humans.  How can we possibly explain the behavior of various societies, including the so called civilized first world when people listen to the rantings and exhortations of insane people?

A guy like our hero Charles has managed to live an anachronistic lifestyle partly because of some good warrior skills by his long ago ancestors and partly at the favor of the people he ‘rules’.  Really? Do people still need to be ruled?  Are people born with some innate ruling gene? Does the font of wisdom and power spout from their family basins? 

A hundred or so years ago, perhaps the answer would have been yes.  At this point in human history, with the kind of knowledge that’s widely available, you would think that if you were lucky enough to be born into a family that had laughable privileges over the rest of society, which you in no way earned, that you would just shut up and leave well alone.

But no, not our guy Chuck.  Not content to sit on the throne like a porcelain figurine to be admired by his subjects, he deigns to impress them with his sage wisdom.  Unfortunately for him, he’s missed his opportunity to issue Royal decrees by a few hundred years.  In the old days, if he ordered 5 minute showers, then 5 minute showers it was.  In our present time however, it may be more difficult to convince the dirty unwashed that HRH’s exhortations are any more than the usual ravings of an elitist windbag.  And come on, based on his personal history, shall we say his judgement is a bit lacking?

That’s not to pick on Charles, who I’m sure needs to have some worthy cause to champion in order to pass the long days doing nothing.  What ever happened to world hunger or world education?  Meanwhile, across the pond on this side of the Atlantic, North Americans also seem fond of the edicts and bleatings of their own versions of intellectual royalty; actors, musicians, lawyers and politicians.

Speaking of Al Gore, he’s at it again, telling his flock that more protests should be mounted in favour of global warming issues.  He’s a shining example of living a life of sustainability with his community center sized houses, his judicious use of personal jets and shrewd investments in green technology, which purely by coincidence benefit from his lobbying of the federal government.  Ascetic Al we’ll call him.

Is this how people want to exist?  To confer benefits and privileges to those who would deny that same lifestyle to those who pay for them? What is the point of evolution and the advancement of man and society if we don’t benefit from technology and science?  Who wants to wear clothing made of hemp and rope?  Who wants to ride a horse to the mall instead of taking the Toyota?  Why don’t actors and singers do village minstrel shows instead of using valuable resources to distribute music and film?  Why buy Ipods and TV’s when you can just have entertainment by story tellers in the village square?  Why have phones when you can just use smoke signals?  My guess is that you won’t find a lot of Greenies living in mud floor huts;  more likely in some comfortable suburban home with air conditioning and 3 bathrooms.

There are still societies that believe stoning people to death is a reasonable method of punishment.  I suppose that method is sustainable and doesn’t stress the environment, but why not also just bleed people when they’re ill instead of using modern medicine? Why even bother with research into medicine that can save lives? 

Again I don’t blame Ascetic Al or HRH, they are mere figureheads for the movements they represent.  It’s as if knowledge and common sense were at opposite ends of a fulcrum wherein ascent of one means the descent of the other.  I blame the aliens from outer space for infecting our water supply so that we listen and follow these loons like compliant lemmings.  I blame the aliens for making people think that 5 minute showers and green taxes will save the world.  Or maybe it’s not the water supply, maybe it’s kool-aid.