Outlook on knowledge and man, insecurity, neoauthoritarianism…

Yes, what sort of outlook on knowledge (what you learn about yourself besides plain fact knowledge) do the ones governing* the schools today have (are they denying that you are also learning things about yourself, and others, besides the "fact" knowledge, facts somebody maybe have chosen too**)? And what outlook on man?

*(read: the ones with the highest power, in this case the politicans, whom the people have voted for. Today maybe in a sort of request for "strong" leaders, father-figures? Wanting simple solutions in a complex society and world, a world with many confused young and grownups. In a confusion that's very often denied too? And those, the denying, are probably the most dangerous!? More dangerous the greater the denial is about these things and the more power they get and are given).

** And maybe that doesn't have to be wrong or harmful, if you declare that you (or somebody else) have chosen those facts. You can encourage the child or student to search for more facts and knowledge in parallel or something in that style.

There are neoauthoritarian winds today everywhere in the society it feels. Obey and keep quiet.

Obey and don’t think yourself. As the old time’s upbringing.

The Swedish pediatrician Lars Gustafsson writes in one of his books, with the title that would be something in the style "Guiding Chldren" ("Lotsa barn"), that it’s the history’s own irony that authoritarian limit setting seems to have become highest fashion once again.

Even though most people today aren’t for earlier times abusive, and by inclinations to violence characterized childrearing, you can wonder if a parent of the type being a plain authority is only good. And Gustafsson still meets people who are minimizing and belittling the effects of corporal punishment of children. Probably claiming that it didn’t harm them or other people.

“Look, they (people of older times) are functioning today!”

But how? What have they missed and lost? Would their lives have turned out maybe entirely differently if they hadn't gotten the upbringing they got?

Addition: But there are other forms of violence too. And physical violence probably still exists even though it's actually criminal. And corporal punishment co-exist with other sorts of violence and abuse and other sorts of lack of respect for the child.

A basic idea in all authoritarian upbringings is that the grownups know best. The children are seen as undeveloped and still injudicious or even foolish. It’s the grownups who have the experience and the general view and therefore it’s best if they decide. Children shall learn what the grownups have to say and obey their orders.

Words like order and consequence are strongly emphasized. Punishments are important (and once again punishments are much more than just corporal) and children have to learn the consequences of erroneous behavior. And it’s the adults who decide what’s right and what’s wrong. And where does the erroneous behavior originate from?

The drawbacks of an authoritarian upbringing are many. One is that the hierarchal decision order often is leading to bad decisions (both here and there I would add). If the grownup knows best everything’s so far so good. But this is in many cases not the case.

Sidetrack: And why doesn’t democracy work neither in small nor in big circumstances so many times? And is this proof that we should skip the whole democracy-idea, as some claim?

Another problem with an authoritarian upbringing is that it's neighbor with violence. As soon as a human being seizes power over another there's risk for abuse.

The big damage arises when we give us the right to lose our heads, for example because “we know best” and afterwards try to justify abuse with for example the words

“You have in fact deserved this, so that’s that!”

The risk for this is greater within the fame of an authoritarian upbringing.

But the absolutely greatest risk with an authoritarian upbringing is probably formulated by the American child psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim - and this I thought was interesting and probably very true - namely that an authoritarian upbringing leads to children lacking in independency and that this sort of upbringing makes it more difficult for the child to build both a capacity for decisions and an own inner norm system.

I would add that the other side of the coin can become the opposite; you know best (maybe try to convince yourself, sometimes unconsciously).

The result is now that we as grownups are confused now and then! Because of OUR early history (and things we haven't been able to process, because there's still a lot of denial about these things and their effects), where we couldn’t trust our feelings and reactions. Weren’t allowed to call things in question really or see them as wrong (blind obedience in a more or less authoritarian climate), because the way we were raised and treated was supported in the society and the traditional way of raising kids.

Which is no excuse for what we have suffered and missed, however. For the confusion we now struggle with because of the treatment we received. That have lead to that we don’t have contact with feelings which would lead, guide - and also adequately protect us.

And insecure people are on top often met and treated with contempt for weakness… We easily look up to and admire the secure, who “knows”, and down on the insecure!?