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God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
The Flight of Inner Morals to Outside Influences (part 1 of 3)
By Lu Su
About two weeks ago, my eight year old son Evan got himself involved into a conflict. It took place on the school's playground. It involved other boys. I think when you hear the three word "conflict", "boys" and "playground" used in the same sentence, the mind (at least for most men) automatically conjures images of words of animosity, flying fists, crowds and a bloody nose or two. Yes, a fight erupted on the playground. But it wasn't a physical fight. It was a fight that pitted my son's morals directly against his peers. A conflict over right and wrong. Let me tell you what happened.
Evan is in third grade and attend public school. After lunch, for what ever free time is left in the period, they are free to stay inside and talk, read or study quietly. The other option (option B) is to go outside and play. If you've raised boys, it's not too difficult to figure out which option boys will choose. This school ritual might help explain why my son often returns home with uneaten or partially eaten lunches. The boys often scarf down lunch and are out the door even before they can get their coat on.
In case you don't remember what it was like to be a kid, kids this age purposely seek out differences in other kids.And at the same time there is a great need to "belong" or "fit in". So if my kids go to school with the wrong kind of shirt (or the right shirt but tucked in), wrong sneakers, wrong design on the back pack, or a bad hair cut, there is a high expectation of receiving a ribbing from your "friends". Politeness, at this age, definitely has not been acquired -and probably for most students won't be until after high school.
While playing on the playground equipment, Evan noticed that many of his friends were off the equipment and were gathered into a group looking at something. Evan wanders over to see what has caught their attention and to his surprise he sees this little girl named Theresa surrounded by his friends.
Theresa is this very petite little girl and although in the same grade as Evan and his friends, she is at least a head shorter than most kids in the third grade. Theresa is classified as a special education child. With the assistance of a teacher's aide, Theresa attends some of Evan's classes. She also has some type of speech impediment. My wife volunteers a few days a week to work in the school's library. She told me that when she had asked Theresa a question, she did not reply. My wife doesn't know if Theresa is partially deaf or has some type of attention deficiency, but my wife was unable to communicate with this little child. On top of the speech impediment, Theresa to also very near sided. This is corrected by these very very thick eye glasses. So these Coke bottle like glasses correct her vision, but at the same time really magnify the size of her eyes. Now if there was anyone that stuck out from all the other children in the same grade, this little girl would certainly be a strong contender.
As Evan approach his friends, he could not make out what the boys were saying to her, but he could tell by their posture that they certainly were not kind words or words of encouragement. And kind words coming out of a third grade boy would probably be classified as some of anomaly. By the time Evan got close enough to see and hear what was going on, many of the boys had started poking this little girl with their finger.
Theresa's plead for them to stop, but this just seem to only encourage them to poke her even more. The way Theresa said, "stop" sounded funny to many of the boys. "Stouwwp", Theresa repeated. Some boys probably joined in because they wanted to hear her say "Stouwwp" again. Some started poking Theresa and saying "stop" with the same voice inflection.This funny voice impressions made more boys laugh and this in turn just added more incentive to poke fun at this little girl -because it can make your friends laugh. And the ability to make your friends laugh increases the likelihood of them accepting you into the group.
Although Evan has neither had a conversation with Theresa nor considers her his friend. Evan got vocal and started yelling at his friends to "knock it off!" and to "stop it". When I asked Evan why he stepped in like that to interrupt his friends having "fun", he replied, "Because I knew what they were doing was wrong."
My wife asked Evan if he then went to tell any of the teachers. He said "No", because he didn't want to get his friends in trouble. But Evan did confronted his friends privately (i.e. on the bus, in the hall, in class). When he asked them why they took part in bullying Theresa. Evan told me that he got some stupid replies like, "What is she your girl friend?", "I wasn't bullying her.", "Well, I only poked her once.", and "Well the other boys were doing it."
I personally know many of these boys. From my observation over the years, many of them are good kids. They get decent grades in school. They are polite in my house, in my car, and on the ball field. I personally know many of the kid's parents too. Their parents are educated with good middle class jobs. I can tell you that these kids are being raised in good families with a mom and dad that loves them. Furthermore they are being brought up in a good neighborhood and in a good school system. So what happened here? How is it possible that so many boys fail to see what they were doing was wrong?
Let's look at another incident of boys picking on girls. This event occurred just one generation ago.
In 1942 Jewish women were rounded up from the Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine, which held roughly 1,700 Jews. Notice that in this picture some of them are holding infants and at least one woman one is pregnant. These woman and children are stripped of their clothing, forced to wait in a line, and then executed by Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators.
Here a German policeman is shooting a women who was not fortunate enough to die immediately after the mass execution. How is it possible that so many boys fail to see what they were doing was wrong? There are multiple men in both pictures -including the one snapping the picture. Was there not a single Evan willing to take a stand against what was morally wrong?
I think we can all agree that shooting an unarmed women and children is absolutely wrong. There are no (zero) circumstances that can justify killing of am unarmed women or child. So what I am saying is that there are no outside influences that should be able to affect our inner morals on this subject. So for example, if a new law is passed, allowing you to kill your neighbor, that does not make it morally right to do so; it might make it legal, but not morally right. Peer pressure, capital gain, or some new doctrine of a superior race should be unable to affect our inner morals on this subject.
Think about it.Can you think of an outside influence or circumstance that when applied could suddenly make the slaughter of women and children morally right? I cannot. Next week, let's examine how outside influences causes our inner morals to take flight now -even for those who fear God.
References:
[Photo credits: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes]
