Games of Our Young

The youth of the world are being softened by those who raise them. Almost from the moment they escape the womb, children are taught that they are special and that they are living in a world where all people are created equal. We make games of their entire education. That might work for kindergarteners or pre-schoolers, who's motor skills are still developing. The truth is, we don't need to make up educational games for our children. They learn by playing. When their brains are developing, everything is a kind of game to them. You know what though? It's never too early to teach your spawn about the pain of disappointment or that the strongest and smartest are often victorious. But from what I've observed, we have our kids watching Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer to teach them basic things. Is this because we, as adults can't be bothered to rear our own young or just because we want them to be silent?

All this seems to me, to be a terrible disservice to the children we generate. People seem to have no problem playing for hours on end with a puppy or kitten, but a baby human just seems to be too much bother or perhaps worse, it gets boring or frustrating to deal with. Upon birth we expose our kids to a non-serious, game-like mindset and then when they grow older and refuse to mature, we scratch our heads and ask 'what the hell?'. This shouldn't be surprising but it is. We raise our children to play games and then expect them to go out into the real world when they legally become an adult and be prepared to take on the challenges of life and nature?!

To be fair though, the youth do nothing on their own to mature except in order to impress the opposite sex. Yet they often can't figure out that life is built on conflict: conflict with circumstance, conflict with people, conflict with authority, conflict with nature. I could go on and on. Life is struggle, and as adults the best thing we can do for children is to put them in a situation where they are forced to shed their childhood. A serious situation which is life or death.

The unfortunate truth is that adults don't take children seriously, and children think adults are a joke. One side needs to show that it isn't fucking around, and it shouldn't fall onto the kids. Kids need to play and have fun until they grow out of it, which they will if adults stop making life into a game for them. Keep in mind, I'm not saying life isn't fun. Life's spectacular, but not always a game.

One way or another, the next generation needs to stop being pampered and played with...or a bear will eat it.