LMJ: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
LJ: You wanted to get in the chair. So I let you get in the chair, and now that you’re in the chair you’re mad?
MJ: Are you honestly trying to use logic on a toddler?
I can’t help it. I come by it honestly. I’ve turned into my dad. For as long as I can remember I was warned about the ramifications and consequences of my actions, and I can remember pretty far back. I remember hearing about my unmitigated gall in the apartment we lived in on Twinbrook Parkway in Rockville, Maryland. We moved when I was six. LMJ has this to look forward to, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. There are lectures in her future – endless, rambling, circular lectures – to which she had best pay attention or I will be forced to start over (a chill just ran down my sister’s spine). I doubt she’ll hear about Ronald Reagan as much as I did but I don’t make any promises. I don’t want this. She certainly doesn’t want this, but it’s the circle of life. Unfortunately for LMJ, her father is also a sci-fi geek. And this brings us to the subject of this piece: How do Vulcans deal with their babies? Vulcans aren’t naturally emotionless. They work at suppressing their emotions in the pursuit of pure logic. Their emotions are much more intense than humans. Something has to give. On the one hand, it’s illogical to expect logic to be persuasive to a toddler. On the other hand, a child’s constant flights of fancy must be subdued if the child is expected to be part of a logical society. When and where does the Vulcan begin? Is it intense discipline on baby’s fourth birthday? Is it cultural, and baby gradually learns to mimic mama’s and papa’s behavior? Or is it possibly religious and baby is fed some ridiculous illogical nonsense that she believes because her mind doesn’t have the logical dexterity not to? Illogic as logic – fascinating.
4 comments:
Good title. I'm sure you'll be exploring this same theme on toddler logic and discipline for many, many months.
There is an error in your reasoning: On the other hand, a child’s constant flights of fancy must be subdued if the child is expected to be part of a logical society. The logic thing does little to explain current events, social mores prejudices, and the political leadership in this society. Wail on LMJ.
What goes around surely comes around. Good luck. I hope you are aware that it is all about who is in charge here. LMJ has been in charge for over a year; she is not going to cede control easily.
Dude,
In this case, I must side with nurture and not nature because as you well know Vulcans have the same genetic coding as those back-stabbing, torturing and saber-rattling bastards of the galaxy, the Romulens. I believe the Vulcans raise their children with the programming of their highest held beliefs and thusly produce those tight-lipped and passionless (except for every 7 years thankyouverymuch)offspring that will eventually help run a universe. Here on Earth you see that same programming with different results (see the lovely child rearing philosophies of the Spears family and the Cheney family).
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