Comments on Stefan Molyneux Revealed: A parent sometimes does need to invoke their authority

I did like the first part of the Choamsky video. A...

2011-01-26T09:12:34.073-05:00

I did like the first part of the Choamsky video. Authority has to be justified. However, saving the child from running into the street analogy is ok for that anarchy argument, but is too simple for a discussion of parenting authority. The right amount of authority for a Parent lies somewhere between child/busy street (no doubt: good use of authority) and beating a crying child until they cheer up (no doubt: bad use of authority). The 'right' use of Parental authority is a continuing balancing act where the balance point is constantly changing. Parents live on that oscillating high wire for approximately 20 years per child. Remarkably we all do a very good job of it.

Moly claims to have made the final philosophy argument for morality, secular ethics, blah blah. He constantly holds hiself forth at the final arbiter of what is virtuous. If a child is raised in a loving and secure family for those 20 years, wouldn't a coherent system of ethics warrant an exploration of the virtue of gratitude?

Instead Moly and his wife have twisted the idea of virtue into a pretzel. In the FDR world, cruelty and petty revenge are the virtues. With this set of values driving the FDR community, it is no wonder that Moly also encourages therapy for everyone.

P.S. Thank you for this site. I only just discove...

2011-01-25T22:21:56.260-05:00

P.S. Thank you for this site. I only just discovered Molyneux thru an interview with Charlie Veitch and I fully acknowledge my whole body was resonating with integrity, just like you described: "If you have the slightest leaning against an over reaching government or confiscatory taxes, or the corruption that comes from political power, Moly will capture your attention. He is conversational and engaging. He makes points of observation that will make you feel like a warm blanket has been pulled over you. You think to yourself: “Ahhh. Someone else really gets this.”

This site provides the balance that any sincere person seeking to embody the change they want to see in the world should be informed by.

I'm not a parent, but please accept my humble ...

2011-01-25T22:10:12.927-05:00

I'm not a parent, but please accept my humble musings. Noam Chomsky, intellectual-extraordinaire and (in my understanding) an anarcho-syndicalist, once defined anarchism as something like continually and creatively challenging ILLEGITIMATE authority, and even conceded that in the process of freeing themselves from the cage, the people may at some point need to enlarge and strengthen the floor of the cage to protect themselves from an even greater external threat. For this reason, I think your Erin Brockovich scene is an example of the legitimate use of authority/coercion.

In this interview, Chomsky makes the similar point that an authoritarian parent-child relationship would be legitimate in the instance of grabbing them back off the road when a car's coming to save their life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G6kf7XM9Nk

What you think?