I think that's a bit of an unfair commentary on my post. I wasn't talking about wearing white gloves and hats. I was talking about things we now consider extraordinarily evil which at the time were societally acceptable -- rape as a political statement, marital rape allowed as a matter of law and custom, whipping slaves to death, all at their time were considered normal, or at least acceptable. Parents in 1840 might have been proud of a son from lower class family who became a slavemaster, in control of dozens or hundreds of slaves. Should a parent today be equally proud of a son who went to Somalia to be a slavemaster in a location where slavery is still societally acceptable? Is this how the parent quoted in the article would respond if that's the choice his son made?
All that matters is that it make your child happy and doesn't do harm to anyone else. Better a happy brick layer than an unhappy doctor.
As to the latter, yes. But would you also say better a happy Nevada call girl than an unhappy bank VP? Better a soldier of fortune (yes, there still are soldiers of fortune in the world) than an unhappy firefighter?
And how about the parents in Palestine who are proud of their children who go off and become suicide bombers at 16 and 17. End of life. That, frankly, is a parental attitude I cannot understand. I can't imagine being happy that my son killed himself and took five completely random, innocent people, including babies, with him. Sorry, but I really don't see the parental silver lining in that. |
