Do the kids rule?

Posted by Brett Williams on the TCS List on Wed, 4 Apr., 2001, at 16:32:19 -0400

A poster asked:

Does TCS, at its best, look to outsiders (such as strangers and extended family members) as though kids are ruling the house?

Outsiders see what they want to see.

What do you say to statistics that claim that if you start letting toddlers rule the family, they'll still be ruling when they're teenagers?

Well, duh. So what?

(The point of TCS of course is not to have the children “rule” the parents — but it is unavoidable that that is how it will be seen from the worldview of an authoritarian society. To an authoritarian worldview, the question is not “is there an authority in this situation” but “who is the authority in this situation.” In any situation where there is no authority, one will be invented or imagined.)