How much about this fucking WAR should I tell my young son?

[Scrapheap]

....... and the school has decided, without reviewing it with ME, that he should be exposed to the political problems abroad.
They are clouding his sense of priority, while I'm not looking.

This is very common in the Public school system. The liberal teachers unions have completely currupted teaching agenda.

[Scrapheap]

How much detail about politics can an eight year old grasp?  ... or a six year old? Is it time to explore more deeply the nature of humankind, with them?

Anybody got anything to add to my fears.

You can start out by pointing to the obvious, that humans are social and live in groups. As soon as groups form, Theres a need for someone to be in charge. More than one person wants to be in charge so those who want to be in charge, end up fighting over it.

 That should be a good starting point to get the discussion started.

[Scrapheap]

i just have a theory that people are happier if they find themselves.

This theory must be stamped out............... Can't let it spread........................... must conform, must conform, must conform, must conform, must conform............ 

[Scrapheap]

Explain to them how politics in the US really work; how big corporations finance candidates who'll serve their purposes and that it's impossible to get elected without huge amounts of money from corporate and religious sources, necessitating that you support the interests of those groups at the expense of the interests of the US public, that the big news corporations toe the government line to avoid getting into trouble and having their profits hit, and that the US has a deeply nationalistic culture with disturbing parallels to fascist societies (oaths of allegiance, saluting the flag etc).

They might think you're mad, and decide to join the Bush youth and report you to their chapter leader, but you can't give them anything more than the truth.

Again Peter, while there's some truth to this, this isn't a uniquely American thing. You'll find the same problems in any large Industrialized Nation.

[Litigious]

Like Sweden. Though Sweden is more like old communist Russia. 

[Scrapheap]

My father was a devoted social democrat when I was a kid. I strongly opposed his political views, but at the same time I admired his courage. There once was a drunk driver that smashed into a rock outside our house when I was about 10 years old. My father testified against the drunk in court. He said that "If this irresponsible bastard had hit one of my sons instead of the rock, we wouldn't have had this trial today." "How is that?", the judge asked. "Because he wouldn't have been alive. There might have been a trial, but not against him." That was a pretty un-Swedish thing to say, especially in court.

I like that, but I also believe in the feeling he projected to the court.

I actually think the drunk was freed, because he claimed that he was sober when the accident happened but drank some booze out of a bottle he had in the car after the accident. I don't know if he would have gotten away with that in the US, but that kind of things are possible in Sweden. If they don't have like 100% proof, you go free, except if you're accused of attacking the government and authorities. Then you'll get a very hard punishment, usually much harder than if you did something against another citizen.

Is this the sort of inept corruption the US gets to look forward to? 

[Peter]

Explain to them how politics in the US really work; how big corporations finance candidates who'll serve their purposes and that it's impossible to get elected without huge amounts of money from corporate and religious sources, necessitating that you support the interests of those groups at the expense of the interests of the US public, that the big news corporations toe the government line to avoid getting into trouble and having their profits hit, and that the US has a deeply nationalistic culture with disturbing parallels to fascist societies (oaths of allegiance, saluting the flag etc).

They might think you're mad, and decide to join the Bush youth and report you to their chapter leader, but you can't give them anything more than the truth.

Again Peter, while there's some truth to this, this isn't a uniquely American thing. You'll find the same problems in any large Industrialized Nation.

I know.

[Litigious]

My father was a devoted social democrat when I was a kid. I strongly opposed his political views, but at the same time I admired his courage. There once was a drunk driver that smashed into a rock outside our house when I was about 10 years old. My father testified against the drunk in court. He said that "If this irresponsible bastard had hit one of my sons instead of the rock, we wouldn't have had this trial today." "How is that?", the judge asked. "Because he wouldn't have been alive. There might have been a trial, but not against him." That was a pretty un-Swedish thing to say, especially in court.

I like that, but I also believe in the feeling he projected to the court.

I actually think the drunk was freed, because he claimed that he was sober when the accident happened but drank some booze out of a bottle he had in the car after the accident. I don't know if he would have gotten away with that in the US, but that kind of things are possible in Sweden. If they don't have like 100% proof, you go free, except if you're accused of attacking the government and authorities. Then you'll get a very hard punishment, usually much harder than if you did something against another citizen.

Is this the sort of inept corruption the US gets to look forward to? 

I'm afraid so. If you get "Euro".  

[Scrapheap]

Is this the sort of inept corruption the US gets to look forward to? 

I'm afraid so. If you get "Euro".  

I'm moving to Uraguay. 

[odeon]

I don't know whether to be more pissed at the school, again or What The Fuck!

I am so happy with the way some aspects of the kids schooling are going, yet another BYTE from the BullShit side of the rightwing elements and I'm finding it hard to ignore.

You can always move to Sweden. Here they'll blame the entire war and Israel-Palestine conflict on the US and Israel in the schools and call the Iraqi and Palestinian terrorists "freedom fighters" or at least "resistance fighters"...

 

[odeon]

In our country, most people learn their kids to trust and obey the authorities...

Says the guy without any kids.

Will you stop turning everything into a personal vendetta against anyone and anything Swedish?

[McGiver]

In our country, most people learn their kids to trust and obey the authorities...

Says the guy without any kids.

Will you stop turning everything into a personal vendetta against anyone and anything Swedish?

odeon, would you care to add anything else to the discussion, as a parent yourself.  or, would you just like to set Litigious straight?

[odeon]

In our country, most people learn their kids to trust and obey the authorities...

Says the guy without any kids.

Will you stop turning everything into a personal vendetta against anyone and anything Swedish?

odeon, would you care to add anything else to the discussion, as a parent yourself.  or, would you just like to set Litigious straight?

My goal was to set Lit straight because not everything is--or should be--about what a bad country Sweden is, according to his opinion. Lit's arguments are not always without merit--far from it--but he hurts his cause by painting everything in black and white. Mostly black, as a matter of fact.

Other than that, no. I think the issues have been reasonably well covered and I did not feel the need to add my 0.02 when I read the thread.

[DirtDawg]

In our country, most people learn their kids to trust and obey the authorities...

Says the guy without any kids.

Will you stop turning everything into a personal vendetta against anyone and anything Swedish?

odeon, would you care to add anything else to the discussion, as a parent yourself.  or, would you just like to set Litigious straight?

My goal was to set Lit straight because not everything is--or should be--about what a bad country Sweden is, according to his opinion. Lit's arguments are not always without merit--far from it--but he hurts his cause by painting everything in black and white. Mostly black, as a matter of fact.

Other than that, no. I think the issues have been reasonably well covered and I did not feel the need to add my 0.02 when I read the thread.

Bummer!
I feel cheated. I thought I had started a decent discussion, for once.
 

[odeon]

You did start an interesting topic. I started reading and thinking about it, and got stopped in my tracks by Lit's turning it all into another blame-it-on-the-cowardly-Swedes rant. Sorry.