So not all parents are idiots. About time!

Here in America, there’s an ongoing debate about corporal punishment of children. The backwards types who look fondly upon the times they were bent over their father’s knee and given a whoopin’ they’d feel into the next week call for a return to such antediluvian days. Of course, the “progressive” thinkers aren’t really any better. I’ve heard a number of young mothers (too young, frankly) say such things as “Because of my maternal instinct I automatically give in to my child. I can’t stand to see them cry.” Basically, foolish parents choose either to create authority-fearing, risk-averse drones, or spoiled little would-be Paris Hiltons. Hence Republicans and Democrats.

But what about the third (read: intelligent) option? The best way to teach a kid discipline and wisdom is to throw them at the world and let them learn on their own. And that’s what this mother did. Unlike many mothers, she’s a true “mom” (mom = good mother; mother = neutral term). You can read about the story there, but the short version is she let her 10 year old kid return home alone on the subway in New York. Now that is a cool mom!

No its not Jhay, your rong. Its dangeress.

It’s just as dangerous for women to walk through Compton alone at 1 AM. We don’t ban them from doing it. And anyway, kids back in the day (read: before I was around, sadly) walked to school alone before age 10, and went trick-or-treating all by themselves (or with a cohort of peers) without helicopter parents shuttling them around.

But its difrant! Its moar dangeress today!

No it’s not. Quit romanticizing, you spineless freak.

Your mean.

And you’re stupid.

Anyway, obviously there is a greater element of danger in letting your kids roam free. Nobody’s going to say it’s as safe, let alone safer. But that’s exactly the point! There are two things at work here. Firstly, if kids don’t experience an element of danger while young, and at that, don’t learn to comport themselves in dangerous situations, they will be paralyzed with fear and indecision when life hits them. Do you think passengers raised by omnipresent parents would have handled being on Flight 93 the same way? Something tells me people like Todd Beamer were allowed to roam free as kids. Today’s kids, their last words wouldn’t be “Let’s roll” or but “Oh my God, oh my God, mommy!”

There’s also another element here, which will no doubt piss some people off. More freedom for kids = more freedom for Charlie to do his work. No, I don’t mean Charles Manson or the Viet Cong. I mean Darwin. With all the safety gear we padlock kids into, it makes it far too easy for the stupid ones to live, and thus perpetuate their genes. With a more dangerous environment, people of any age are more subject to the laws of Darwin. In a society that is quickly falling into degeneracy, we need that.