Julian’s brilliant Reason essay on “parentalism” is a must read.
I like this:
But perhaps a more important problem with parentalism is that it licenses what Sartre called “bad faith,” the attempt to avoid the burdens of responsibility by denying our own freedom. Classical liberals may even inadvertently encourage this by speaking of responsibility as “the other side” of freedom, as though it were the spinach that had to be cleared away before getting to desert. But is that really so? When we make trivial choices—what to have for dinner, what movie to see, which CD to buy—what we most value is the freedom to select without constraint from many options. Yet when it comes to our most central choices—what kind of person am I to be, what work will I find rewarding?—we may take as least as much satisfaction in the feeling of responsibility for our choices, in knowing that we have shaped a life that is ours even when we have chosen badly.
Own it, people. Own it.
That is excellent. I especially liked this part:
It’s always nice to see someone else articulate a view you’ve held.
Parentalism – what an odd label for the desire to have other people make choices for you. Nobody who actually is a parent would come up with it, the last thing children want is for their parents to make decisions for them.
It’s a fair bet that Will, with his misogynistic streak, is childfree. Ditto Mr. Sanchez. And sure enough, the economist who coined the term turns out to be barren, too. Children are a huge responsibilty. Once you have them, sociopathic political beliefs like libertarianism tend to fade away…
I have a misogynistic streak?
Daniel-
I think Emerson referred to your last line as the recognition of genius.
Monkey Boy-
You must not have a child yourself. Parents have to make all kinds of decisions for children. When they should get up, what they should wear, what they should eat, how much TV they should watch, what they should read, where they should go to school. As the child gets older most parents cede more and more decisions to the child. Not only do children need these decisions made for them, they want them made them.
For the record my wife and I have one child and I think it has only strengthened my commitment to classical liberalism.
Will-
Some might misconstrue your wicked thumb wrestling dominance as misogynistic.
Monkeyboy,
Until I had kids I would have agreed with your assesment because I know I wanted fiercely to make all of my own decisions, and would have expected everyone else to feel the same. However, I now have a teenager who has a tendency to try to make me make nearly every important decision so that he can either 1) rebel and argue against it as strenously as possible once I’ve made it because he won’t or 2) blame me if he tries to go along with it but somehow fails. Of course, all successes are of his making. I’ve stopped making all decisions for him so he’s hit this period where nothing is happening for him. When I point out that nobody’s stopping him but him, he wants to point out that by not doing anything I am intentionally undermining him. I’m done being frustrated, so I’ve wished him good luck and I hope that eventually he’ll be able to take on the responsibility of making a decision. Unfortunately, I think this is becoming more and more common in our society. The thought is that if I don’t make the decision, then if it doesn’t work out it is not my fault.
Also, I’m a female who has known Will for a very long time and I’ve never observed a misogynistic streak.
Thanks, Jen! You’re awesome. You didn’t mean to, but you’ve just reminded me to call Suz.
For the ideal liberal, the policy issue with smoking bans would seem to be: How can we furnish people with the choice of smoking and non-smoking bars?
(Or how can we make sure our kids face choices in a way that helps them grow up happy, effective, virtuous, whatever.
In my experience, we did not have the choice of non-smoking bars before the bans. I predict that Boston, New York, etc. will have some smoking bars shortly. So, my guess is the ban will ultimately produce a better result from the liberal point of view.
“Own it, people. Own it.”
Yes, there was a time when ownership did mean taking responsibility for one’s choices. But now ownership of our country’s giant enterprises entails no more responsibility for their actions than “sell” or “hold”. It would seem that shareholders couldn’t “own up” if they wanted to.
An interesting article, but not one that has me sold. I strongly suspect that “total” freedom is (for most people) just too much damn work.
While there is certainly some joy in taking responsibility for one’s own life, I’m pretty certain that for most people, happiness is higher when at least some “temptation avoidance” is outsourced to the authorities.
As always, the optimal point is no doubt found away from the end points of “all responsibility, no restrictions” and “no responsibility, everything restricted”. In general, human beings aren’t terribly happy with absolutes…
That is excellent. I especially liked this part:
It’s always nice to see someone else articulate a view you’ve held.
Parentalism – what an odd label for the desire to have other people make choices for you. Nobody who actually is a parent would come up with it, the last thing children want is for their parents to make decisions for them.
It’s a fair bet that Will, with his misogynistic streak, is childfree. Ditto Mr. Sanchez. And sure enough, the economist who coined the term turns out to be barren, too. Children are a huge responsibilty. Once you have them, sociopathic political beliefs like libertarianism tend to fade away…
I have a misogynistic streak?
Daniel-
I think Emerson referred to your last line as the recognition of genius.
Monkey Boy-
You must not have a child yourself. Parents have to make all kinds of decisions for children. When they should get up, what they should wear, what they should eat, how much TV they should watch, what they should read, where they should go to school. As the child gets older most parents cede more and more decisions to the child. Not only do children need these decisions made for them, they want them made them.
For the record my wife and I have one child and I think it has only strengthened my commitment to classical liberalism.
Will-
Some might misconstrue your wicked thumb wrestling dominance as misogynistic.
Monkeyboy,
Until I had kids I would have agreed with your assesment because I know I wanted fiercely to make all of my own decisions, and would have expected everyone else to feel the same. However, I now have a teenager who has a tendency to try to make me make nearly every important decision so that he can either 1) rebel and argue against it as strenously as possible once I’ve made it because he won’t or 2) blame me if he tries to go along with it but somehow fails. Of course, all successes are of his making. I’ve stopped making all decisions for him so he’s hit this period where nothing is happening for him. When I point out that nobody’s stopping him but him, he wants to point out that by not doing anything I am intentionally undermining him. I’m done being frustrated, so I’ve wished him good luck and I hope that eventually he’ll be able to take on the responsibility of making a decision. Unfortunately, I think this is becoming more and more common in our society. The thought is that if I don’t make the decision, then if it doesn’t work out it is not my fault.
Also, I’m a female who has known Will for a very long time and I’ve never observed a misogynistic streak.
Thanks, Jen! You’re awesome. You didn’t mean to, but you’ve just reminded me to call Suz.
For the ideal liberal, the policy issue with smoking bans would seem to be: How can we furnish people with the choice of smoking and non-smoking bars?
(Or how can we make sure our kids face choices in a way that helps them grow up happy, effective, virtuous, whatever.
In my experience, we did not have the choice of non-smoking bars before the bans. I predict that Boston, New York, etc. will have some smoking bars shortly. So, my guess is the ban will ultimately produce a better result from the liberal point of view.
“Own it, people. Own it.”
Yes, there was a time when ownership did mean taking responsibility for one’s choices. But now ownership of our country’s giant enterprises entails no more responsibility for their actions than “sell” or “hold”. It would seem that shareholders couldn’t “own up” if they wanted to.
An interesting article, but not one that has me sold. I strongly suspect that “total” freedom is (for most people) just too much damn work.
While there is certainly some joy in taking responsibility for one’s own life, I’m pretty certain that for most people, happiness is higher when at least some “temptation avoidance” is outsourced to the authorities.
As always, the optimal point is no doubt found away from the end points of “all responsibility, no restrictions” and “no responsibility, everything restricted”. In general, human beings aren’t terribly happy with absolutes…