Progressives want to infantilize all Americans – not just the children.
Halloween and Extreme Risk Aversion
By: George Noga – October 25, 2020
America has become pusillanimous and insanely risk intolerant; nothing demonstrates this better than Halloween. What once was a carefree, fun-filled evening, when kids roamed the neighborhood unaccompanied, has morphed into a phantasmagoria of perceived horrors. Heaven forbid that Halloween should be even a little bit scary. Following are ten of the orgy of safety warnings recently gleaned from the media.
- Make sure you buy only inflammable (sic) costumes but have your kid practice stop, drop and roll in case it catches fire anyway.
- Avoid loose-fitting costumes so your child doesn’t trip or fall.
- Inspect your kid’s route in advance so there are no sidewalks in disrepair.
- Don’t use masks that limit your child’s range of vision.
- Test face paint a few days in advance to make sure there is no reaction.
- Inspect every treat before allowing your child to eat anything.
- If you apply nail polish, make sure the windows are open and ventilated.
- Affix information tags to your children; better yet, use GPS trackers.
- If dark outside use reflective tape and give kids glow sticks.
- All makeup should be non toxic and tested well in advance.
The infantilization of Halloween should be no surprise; it is but one manifestation of the nanny state America has become. Amtrak won’t allow unaccompanied minors under 13 and those under 16 only under rigorous preconditions. In Japan, 8 year olds routinely travel alone. In some places in America, children are not allowed to walk to school; those under 14 can’t be left home alone and legally can’t blow up a balloon. Parks have removed see-saws, monkey bars and merry-go-rounds. OSHA ordered day care centers to saw off all tree branches below 8 feet to prevent kids climbing trees.
Infantilization of children is child abuse – pure and simple.
When I was young, we walked miles to school in first grade with no crossing guards. We played baseball with real spikes and ate raw hamburger; we owned real guns and carried them openly in residential neighborhoods. We hitchhiked and were not paranoid about strangers. We always kept score; only winners received trophies and there was but one valedictorian. We were paid to babysit as early as age 11. We operated power saws unsupervised in shop class. Halloween was entirely on our own.
There is a war on childhood in America. The marketplace caters to parental paranoia by selling leashes for children and alarms that sound if the kid wanders ten feet away. GPS devices to perpetually track kids’ whereabouts are on the market. One company sells “Piggyback Rider”, a backpack designed to carry kids up to age 7 and 60 pounds, nearly old enough to ride a train unaccompanied in Japan and other countries.
Infantilization of children is child abuse – pure and simple. It hobbles their emotional development; they experience academic problems; and they have poor social skills. They are averse to responsibility and often fail as adults. Progressives’ real goal however, is not just to infantilize children – but all Americans. They aim to turn American into a nanny state with government as the nanny and all of us as children.
