The Laughing Wolf

And The Parents Are Responsible How?

There was an ad I saw on TV this morning at the gym, which brought up a fundamental question, and flaw with much of what is socially conscious right now. The ad focused on teen drinking, and the problems therein. It called for tough actions on the people who sold or gave alcohol to minors. It demanded that corporations be made to pay for the damage done by alcohol and to be harshly and fully regulated. In all the individuals and entities it demanded be held accountable, it left out the most important of all: the parents.

Nowhere in this screed was there any hint that parents have any responsibility for their children. No suggestion that parents need to keep up with what the kids are doing, much less take the responsibility to raise them such that the kids could make intelligent choices about alcohol and behavior. From what was being said, children should be kept from knowing of alcohol until such time as they turned legal age, lest they be corrupted.

The flaw in this logic is obvious, and so obvious that no one will deal with it. The commercial, and the group behind it, are a part of the societal responsibility group that feels that we need a nanny state to monitor and control all. To them, there is no such thing as individual responsibility, only a threat that demands immediate action to prevent harm “to the children.”

It is equally clear that parents will have no leeway on this. No cultural traditions count, if an Italian baby gets watered wine, then a crime is committed. No common sense about taboo items, much less the notion of moderate use. A sip of wine or beer, much less rubbing gums with whisky during teething, and intervention is demanded.

Instead, there will be a new set of laws, a loss of individual freedoms, further restrictions on “enemies of the children” and those evil corporations, and a decisive blow against that destroyer of youth. Never mind that the corporations in question are already highly regulated, or that there are a few hundred laws already on the books including federal laws about legal ages and sales. Never mind that the hypocrisy of the current mindset is helping fuel the very problem they claim to be solving.

Indeed, the new program is flawed in such a way to guarantee that it will become self-perpetuating and even more intrusive. All the better for the new social Gestapo to force changes in society and give themselves more power.

The answer lies not in new laws, but in a new mindset. One that says parents are responsible for their children. One that says that even though they are not yet adults, neither are they children and that teenagers will have to face responsibility for their own actions. No one is forcing them to drink, they are making that individual choice on their own. No one is forcing them to binge or otherwise drink irresponsibly, again that is their choice. Hold both accountable, and enforce the current laws before adding more. Quit making the juvenile justice system a joke, and with real responsibility will come real change.

If the children are given better knowledge and a less hypocritical set of guidelines, and if the parents are allowed to and required to actually raise and take responsibility for their children, then the problems will be small. Kids are going to do some experimenting, deal with it. I did, and I did not do anything too terribly stupid. Then again, my parents had already taught me about alcohol and responsibility. My classmates looked after each other, with one classmate in particular who took keys away from all who came to a certain place where we gathered, and did not give them back if you were not sober and fit to drive.

Responsibility. Pass it on, and give a pass to the particularly bad idea being advertised.

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