I was thinking about the Refugee Ship poem and how parents choose the culture a child grows up in. How much right does a parent have over their child? Parents have the right to choose the language their child grows up with, but the child may have wanted to grow up with a different language. They have the right to name him/her, but he/she may not like his/her name. These are things the child may resent, but have the possibility to change. But what about parents genetically modifying the embryo? Abortion? This is entering politics but I was wondering what opinions were out there on the rights parents have over other people's lives. People in opposition to gay rights and aren't gay themselves. Audrey and I were discussing this after class today. Politicians can say they believe in gay marriage and they can say they don't - that's a lot of influence on a given individual's life. But that's how representative government works, I suppose.
And I forgot to mention today in our discussion of Barbie Doll that I think an individual would change the way he/she looks all because of self-confidence. Everything boils down to self-confidence. A person will succumb to the image of the media if he/she isn't confident in herself. A person will give into the peer pressure of becoming anorexic if his/her friends are doing it and he/she isn't confident enough to say no. A person will get a nose job because he/she isn't confident in his/her natural uniqueness. Feel free to disagree with me, but I think that happiness comes from confidence. If that confidence comes from being plastic or being natural, so be it.
-- tori
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As for your question about how much power a parent has over their child, I would say almost an infinite amount. While somethings are out of the parents control, like the child's athletic ability or other natural talents, parents still can shape virtually all of their child's views of the world including their political and ideological beliefs. For example, I'm an atheist and the reason why is almost solely due to the fact that my parent's are atheists. If my parents were very religious people, I would most certainly be a very religious person.
ReplyDeleteAs for your point about confidence, I totally agree that it's one of the most important parts of being happy. And, considering were all entitled to the pursuit of happiness, shouldn't we be allowed to do whatever we want to achieve it?
-Bryce Cody
I would agree with Bryce that parents have almost infinite control over their child's life. I don't know whether this is right or not, but parents are the biggest influence in a child's life. From the time you are little they tell you this is good and this is bad, do this not that, etc. They shape what you believe just like Bryce's parents shaped his religion.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that self-confidence plays a huge role in happiness. Being happy in general usually begins with accepting yourself. If you are happy with who you are as a whole, things like the size of your nose or color of your harir are overlooked or accepted since they pale in comparison to your talent at the violin or great math skills. However, if you think you are a horrible violinist, then your nose is just one more thing to add to the list of problems and seems like a bigger deal.
~Becca