Relativism and Good and Evil
The most basic premise of relativism involves the nonexistence of a definite good and evil. Everything falls into different shades of gray. Therefore, punishing a child because they have done "wrong" contradicts the very foundation of relativism. Children should be led to better choices not punished for wrongdoing. However, in the real world we really cannot get away from the concept of good and evil. Even liberals have their own concept of evil and it usually involves conservatives. Let a conservative in public life make a mistake or misstep, and liberals will very quickly pounce and label that person with every "evil" label in their arsenal. How many people have been labeled "bigots," "racists," "homophobes," "sexist," etc. when they took a stand against a liberal point of view. Believe me, liberals really do have their own concept of good and evil. It just does not match the conservative point of view. Therefore, in reality relativism stands for the removal of what has historically been morally right in order for them to push the boundaries of what is acceptable. They want to do what is right in their own eyes. History contains a plethora of examples of people following this very philosophy. Those societies usually imploded. Please keep that in mind.
A Look at Corporal Punishment from a Logical Point of View
Now, we will turn our attention to corporal punishment. In this, I am going to play devil's advocate and take the statements made by progressives and liberals on this subject and apply logic to it. First, we will look at the statement "spanking makes children more violent." This statement represents the "common knowledge" of today's parenting experts. I am using an If/Then approach for the rest of this discussion. If this statement is true, then children should be less violent than they were 30 or 40 years ago. As more and more parents adopt a "no spanking" policy, we as a society should see a significant drop in the level of violence in children. Are we seeing a drop in the level of violence? For this you would need to speak to someone old enough to have seen society both ways. What do those that have been in childcare for 20 to 30 years say about children today? Most of them will admit that children have become more violent not less. I keep up with several childcare chat groups, and it is not uncommon at all for providers and other children to be punched, cussed, or otherwise physically assaulted by 3 and 4 year olds. I am old enough to know that this type of behavior was not common 30 to 40 years ago. Up until about 30 years ago most children were still spanked by their parents. That was the point in our history spanking began to fall out of favor. Now, spanking has nearly completely fallen out of favor. Therefore, if the assertion that spanking makes children more violent is true, then we should be seeing a significant drop in the level of violence among children. We are not. I will leave it at that.
Is all Corporal Punishment Child Abuse?
Next, we will look at the second most popular stance on corporal punishment. Many progressives and liberals assert that all corporal punishment is child abuse. Using the If/Then approach again, let us discuss that. If all corporal punishment is child abuse, then every or almost every child born before say 1960 was abused. If every single child from the dawn of time until 1960 suffered abuse as a child, then every person from the dawn of time until 1960 should have shown the effects of toxic stress. Now, I know some progressives and liberals that would run with that statement and really do some rewriting of history. However, as an avid student of history I have much more respect for history than that. Have we had stable communities and societies since the dawn of time? Yes and no. However, if even one community or society remained stable for even a few years, that would dispute the claim that all children before 1960 were abused. Children that endure toxic stress have trouble functioning as adults. Those children would have problems establishing stable communities and societies. We have had lots of stable communities and societies that have lasted in some cases thousands of years and in some cases hundreds of years. All of these stable communities and societies were filled with people that had been spanked as a child. Remember, there is a huge difference between normal stress and toxic stress. Normal stress produces fully functioning adults. Toxic stress produces people incapable of handling the normal stresses of life. Maybe, just maybe spanking does not fall into the toxic stress category.
The Dangers of Too Liberal of an Interpretation
Progressives and Liberals fail to understand one very important concept. Laws and regulations need to be specific in their interpretation in order for them to be enforceable. When laws and regulations are too broadly defined, they leave too much open for interpretation and become nearly impossible to enforce. When you too broadly define child abuse, you water down the effectiveness of enforcing what is true child abuse. Have you ever heard of the old proverb, "Strain out a gnat and swallow a camel?" True child abuse has been around since the dawn of time. Be careful not to become too broad in what you consider child abuse or you may find yourself going after people that are not abusing their children and completely missing the ones that do.
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