Kids’ Minds Are Sponges, and We Decide What They’ll Absorb
When I become a grandfather, it’s (vaguely) possible that I’ll be consulted once more as to what objects belong in a child’s playroom. At left is a good example of what, IMO, doesn’t belong there: training in robo-consumerism.
When you consider how many really cool possibilities there are that teach science, appreciating and creating art, early reading, the behavior of fish, lizards, snakes, and hamsters, it’s hard to understand why a parent would favor an indoctrination into the habits of those sad adults who accumulate stuff.
All this becomes more important with each passing year, as it gets increasingly clear that infinite growth is impossible on a planet of finite size. Sustainability implies the intelligent management of our precious resources, not gobbling them up simply because we can.
Craig,
I can appreciate your concerns, and yet aren’t you also attempting to indoctrinate your children and grandchildren with your values?
Anti-consumerism can be an intolerant anti-social political ideology when carried to an extreme.
You and i benefit from a free thinking, creative society, where the value and interest of the individual competes with the needs and convenience of the majority or herd.
This makes for a complex and intricate society of compromises where different dynamics merge and separate in a kaleidoscope (odd how that word survives long after the technology has disappeared)of human creativity.
What you call “stuff” is often the accumulation of vast human endeavour and ingenuity by many thousands of inventors and engineers etc, in many different disciplines to produce sometimes quite ordinary items of technology.
It’s this “stuff” that provides employment for the majority of the worlds population.
The joy of ownership of desired possessions, provides pride, reward, comfort,satisfaction etc, and creates an aura of prosperity and achievement to billions of ordinary folk.
Who says they are wrong, and condescending elitists who sneer at their values and aspirations are right?
I recently visited President Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Mar-a-Lago, resort is a great credit to his vision as a developer and conservationist.
For those who haven’t had the opportunity to visit Mar-a-Lago, the giant estate was the creation of an heiress named Marjorie Merriweather Post, who set out in 1924 to build a 126-room, 62,500-square-foot mansion.
The house and grounds were extravagant. It was designed and decorated by the leading set designers of Hollywood’s grand silent era.
No expense was spared. The mansion processed 58 bedrooms, 33 bathrooms with gold-plated fixtures (easier to clean), an 1,800-square-foot living room with 42-foot ceilings. Its 110,000 square feet glinted with gold leaf, Spanish tiles, Italian marble and Venetian silks. The building also has 12 grand Italian fireplaces, a specially constructed 30 foot-long pietra dura marble one piece dining table, 12 and three bomb shelters.
The precious inlays and panels contain many fine examples of rare timbers.
In its heyday Mar-a-lago was America’s most expensive mansion, a unique treasure of American oppulence. There was nothing similar in the entire world.
Ironically, when she died in 1974, Marjorie Post bequeathed the mansion and the grounds to the nation to be used as a “Winter White House”.
However, the property proved too expensive for the federal government, which soon realized the immense cost of maintenance, and returned the property to the Post foundation.
For 20 years the old mansion sat an abandoned and neglected relic of a by-gone era. Despite being the last of the old grand mansions of its type, in 1988 the property was allowed to sell off the 20 acres of land connecting the mansion with the beach and the property was forgotten and in need of repair.
Enter Donald Trump. Trump visited the mansion and fell in love with the property. After so hard dealing, he purchased back the lost beach front and united it with the original mansion.
The quality of Trump’s restoration of of the exterior and interior have to be seen to be believed. The buildings modernization has been done discretely, while all the original decor and features have been retained.
The building has received praise from every reviewer.
The old mansion is divided into a family home for the Trump family, and a grand resort club, with one of the world’s best golf courses only a few minutes away.
The trump family have every reason to be proud of this magnificent achievement in preserving a national historical treasure in exactly the right ownership!
When it opened in 1997, Mar-a-Lago filed a lawsuit against the Town of Palm Beach in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Trump accused the town of discriminating against Mar-a-Lago for allowing black and Jewish members. The law suit complained these groups were typically not welcome in the area’s other elite clubs.
Trump lawyers cited the council members who had placed the conditions on Mar-a-Lago, but not the segregated clubs to which the councilors were members.
These are some of the facts the Democrats gloss over! (the town council at that time was largely Democrat).
If I spent more time in the US and Florida I would certainly consider becoming a member.
While consumerism has some negative aspects, it also has positive aspects which also are valuable lessons for children to learn.