“Over time, as that first lockdown year unfolded in all its insanity and cruelty, I came to understand something painful but true: I wasn’t going to find alignment, or even conversation, with those I loved most on this topic. I had to look elsewhere.”

open.substack.com/pub/trishdennis/p/when-the-world-changed-i-did-too

Right. Where do I start?

There are a couple of factors at play here. By no means is it an exhaustive list. Here goes, not in any particular order:

1. This is what happens when you remove God from parenting. Even on a secular level, this is what happens when you remove ‘morality’ out of the society and its outlook, etc.

2. Government policy undermines parental authority, as parents are worried about disciplining their child/ren without the potential threat of them being removed or the social sniffing around.

3. The winds of social change have blown in favour of the ‘child liberationists’. Look how that turned out.

4. Technology/social media, the peer group, etc has replaced religion, the family, etc as the main socialising agents.

5. If you love your child and that too includes anyone you love, you discipline them. If you don’t correct nor discipline someone, you don’t love them - enough. We give each other the odd hypothetical slap now and again to keep each other on the straight and narrow. We take it because the foundation is love and good intention which is coming from a good place, etc.

6. This is all in an attempt to dismantle God given authority in order to create unruly future generations who are rudderless. Bad behaviour is encouraged in the media and is in fact celebrated. It’s all inverted.

7. There is a difference between discipline and abuse. Trust me, we know the difference. I won’t go into it here. All I can say is that the way we were treated as we were growing up had it been done now, we would have been removed with immediate effect. God knows what could have happened had it been today, with all the stuff Mr Gerrish has covered. I believe the Lord had His hand on us even all those decades ago. I rest my case. But by God, it made me into the ‘man’ I (we) am (are) today. It breaks you, but God makes you.

Just adding to point 4 I made yesterday on the ‘smacking’ ban and how the state is undermining parents. It’s best summarised by Postman in his work on the ‘information hierarchy’ which refers to the differences in adults in children in terms of literacy, adults can read, and children cannot. This separates the two life stages and keeps 'adult' themes away from children to maintain their innocence. Due to the rise of TV and the internet, children are exposed to these adult themes and no longer maintain this innocence. As a result, the lines between adults and children become blurred because children can know as much as adults can and therefore destroys the information hierarchy. This implies the boundary is destroyed, adult power also fades along with the innocence that children possess.

"The British Army’s recruitment crisis could be solved “in just one day” if pensioners up to their nineties were allowed to serve in non-combat military roles, according to experts"

What can you say? Genuinely, what? It's beyond words 👿

https://www.nationalworld.com/business/british-army-recruitment-shortfall-could-be-solved-by-letting-pensioners-enlist-5149449

— 🇪🇬 NEW: Egypt has decided to close the Saint Catherine monastery in Sinai, the oldest Christian monastery in the world

The site will be converted into a museum to benefit Egypt's tourism sector. The monks and priests will be evicted to elsewhere.

@Middle_East_Spectator

Meanwhile in AI-land, it’s 1990 and you can fact-check on Wikipedia.

Friday limerick contest:

OAPs in the Forces

Oh this is going to be a good one! 😅