smooth

liquidlight,

I agree with your sentiment. There are a variety of methods to address our childhood outbursts. As adults or even adolescents, external punishment is a quite different matter than when we are still in our development stages, in my opinion.


However, police interaction coupled with arrest is a violent expression of the state. That's why I mean--not that they were physically abusive. I think you would agree, upon reflection, that restraining someone against his or her will is violence upon the person and the person's freedom. If we link freedom to the core of one's identity, we would have to admit that restricting that freedom, even for cause, is violence upon the very existence and meaning of a free person's identity.

mrkilxx,
Not only did I watch the entire video, I showed it to a class full of univeristy students last night. You may think that leaving a child alone in that room is unacceptable, but that's no reason to discard my point unless you believe that was the only room available to place her in.

Ignoring it and it going away, whatever else it may have done, was not a factor in this situation as evidenced by the police officer's own statement that he had been involved in previous incidents. In fact, that singular statement bolsters my point that police intervention is having the opposite effect people in here think it would have.


In regards to point 2, rather than rolling your eyes at my statement, you would do better to reread it and realize that was directed at parents in this thread. The first sentence clearly distinquishes, to my mind, between restraining a child and "fondling" one. Why would you malign my point to reflect that of a pedophile? That makes very little sense to me and doesn't really add to the discussion, in my opinion.


EDIT: liquidlight, I want to point out that I don't classify violence as necessitating emotion. I would probably classify violent+emotion (in the way I think you are conceiving of emotion in such a circumstance) as abuse. I don't find that surprising given that you associate abuse with violence as a result of your upbringing. I don't want to speculate too much on that, however, I'm not trying to be offensive at all and I suspect you can gather that given our childhoods being seemingly similar.

But a smack on the bottom is violence. I could use the term "force" if that clarifies my position. That we can model non-force rather than force for our young children. But like I said, I'm not an expert, just giving an opinion because so many people asked who was going to step up to the plate and offer an alternative.

I think the experts have actually a more detailed guide for when to use force and when not to. I also think you might reconsider whether the force inflicted upon you by the state stops your deviance now, or did you learn another method to handle yourself?

I guess what I mean by that question is I conceive of the incarceration period as a cooling off period, but nothing more. I didn't learn much from it, anyway. The way I walk my life now is a product of what I learned from positive influences in my life, not imprisonment. I wonder if you feel the same way upon reflection.

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"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman