Author Topic: 1984?  (Read 6218 times)

Entsuropi

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1984?
« on: July 12, 2003, 05:45:41 PM »
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,00.html

Read that, tell me what you think. Note that the Guardian is very anti America.
If you're ever in an argument and Entropy winds up looking staid and temperate in comparison, it might be time to cut your losses and start a new thread about something else :)

Fellfrosch

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Re: 1984?
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2003, 09:21:29 AM »
 ::)
One, i like how he tries to make that sound like general American culture. That was unbiased. (note: sarcasm in use here)
Also, I like how he carefully presents all the quotes to make it sound like the administrator is automatically a bastard and that the kids are trying to hide their true feelings and that nothing good could possibly come of this. He also pretty much states that they're abusing children without any evidence except some scattered references from kids who are most likely resentful and want to smear the program.

Anyway, despite the unbalanced reporting, I don't think sending your kid away to some over-controlling program is a way to straighten him out.

Brian

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Re: 1984?
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2003, 01:29:51 PM »
I think a program like this is just a way for parents who have raised their children poorly to pay up to $40,000 to feel better about themselves. I'm not saying that good parents can't have disrespectful children, but in a case so extreme that the parent feels the need to send their kids to a facility like this, it suggests that the child never recieved any meaningful guidance from his/her parents growing up.

Also, I wonder about the potentially negative long term effects of the program. They may be providing the youth with discipline and a grounding in important values (wisdom, respect, yada yada), but it sounds to me like they may be stripping away as much as they're teaching -- such as self respect and appreciation for one's individual qualities. They are becoming familiar with structure and respect for authority to such an extreme that it may be at the expense of curiosity and problem solving. Even in the military one is encouraged to be more -- we all know that "be all you can be" is the US Army's slogan -- not "be exactly what we want you to be."

1984, indeed.

If I screwed up so badly as a parent, I'd sooner send my child to military school than a conformity-conditioning facility, which is what this Tranquility Bay sounds like to me. [Of course its difficult to be certain with the unbalanced reporting in the article.]