Skip to content
Permalink
main
Switch branches/tags

web-hack-mirror/mirror/2000/04/11/www.nambla.org-1/andriett.htm

Go to file
 
 
Cannot retrieve contributors at this time
218 lines (189 sloc) 14.4 KB
Raw Blame
Open in GitHub Desktop
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Liberation: Participation, Not Passivity</TITLE>
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT=" Youth liberation, in a comprehensive sense, is impossible in a materialistic, apolitical society which creeps ever closer to self-destruction. As we fight for sexual freedom, children's rights or women's liberation, it is crucial that we remember the war of which our battle is just one part. The gay and lesbian rights movement, for example, nurtured a spirited debate of sexual mores. But now that the examination of convention has brought the sexuality of children out of the closet, many gay men and lesbians want to thrust it back in. Sad paradoxes arise when we forget that the ultimate aim of our endeavors is a more humane society. NAMBLA's goal is to end the oppression of men and boyswho have mutually consensual relationships. Our membership is open to everyone sympathetic to man/boy love in particular and sexual freedom in general.">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="NAMBLA, NORTH AMERICAN MAN/BOY LOVE ASSOCIATION, MAN/BOY LOVE, BOYS, BOYS SPEAK OUT ON MAN/BOY LOVE, NAMBLA JOURNAL, NAMBLA TOPICS, AGEISM, GAY YOUTH">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Mozilla/3.03Gold (Win16; U) [Netscape]">
</HEAD>
<BODY TEXT="#000000" BGCOLOR="#FFFFE8" LINK="#0000EE" VLINK="#551A8B" ALINK="#FF0000">
<CENTER><P><B><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE=+2>Liberation: Participation,
Not Passivity&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></FONT></B></P></CENTER>
<CENTER><P><FONT COLOR="#804040"><I>by </I><B>Bill Andriette</B></FONT></P></CENTER>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="bill16s.jpg" HEIGHT=82 WIDTH=106 ALIGN=ABSBOTTOM></P></CENTER>
<CENTER><P><I><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE=-1>The author was a high
school student on Long Island, New York, when this article appeared in
NAMBLA&nbsp;JOURNAL&nbsp;SIX.</FONT></FONT></I></P></CENTER>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">MY HIGH SCHOOL has a Parent-Teacher-Student
Association. It is&nbsp;similar in purpose to the PTA in the primary schools,
except that for&nbsp;some obscure reason, it was decided to nominally include
students. There&nbsp;are no students in it, nor teachers for that matter.
It is an organization of&nbsp;mothers, well-intentioned but more or less
ineffectual, who worry that their&nbsp;children will smoke pot or have
sex or somehow fail to become what&nbsp;children from middle class, suburban
communities are supposed to. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">The mundane world of parent associations and
public schools may seem&nbsp;an odd point of departure for a discussion
of youth liberation. To some&nbsp;would-be emancipators of kinderfolk,
schools and nuclear families and&nbsp;sometimes human nature are but unfortunate
encumbrances to the&nbsp;realization of a liberated, un-lumpen class of
consciousness-raised youths. If&nbsp;through sleight of hand the institutions
that stunt children could disappear,&nbsp;then better ones could be built
anew. But the bad ones are with us now. An&nbsp;approach to youth liberation
ought to at least grudgingly assume the&nbsp;presence of the institutions
and work for their improvement, not merely their dissolution.&nbsp;Such
an approach would be more pragmatic than doctrinaire. It would offer&nbsp;guidance
on how to treat young people without condescension, but without&nbsp;assuming
that they are selfless seraphim. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">That a need exists for such guidance should
be obvious. In case it is not, let&nbsp;us return to the PTSA which, at
a recent school board meeting, had its&nbsp;representative speak glowingly
about the prospect of its "parent networking&nbsp;project." The PTSA hopes
to raise parental awareness about drugs and&nbsp;alcohol and arm adults
with the knowledge necessary to detect their use by&nbsp;high school-age
children. Planners hope that the concerned mom will not&nbsp;only keep
a sharp eye on her own youngsters for the telltale unstable gait&nbsp;and
dilated pupils, but that each parent will keep watch over every other's&nbsp;child.
And since the group believes education is the key to prevention, it is&nbsp;lobbying
for an elementary school program to hit students with the evils of&nbsp;drugs
and strong brew at a time when they still might believe what is taught&nbsp;in
the classroom. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Seeing no need to involve the students directly
in solving the problem,&nbsp;the PTSA seeks not to establish rapport but
to assert parental authority&nbsp;over the child. They cannot view the
drug problem as anything but a lapse in&nbsp;adult control that can be
corrected by dictums passed down from above. By&nbsp;employing well-timed
propaganda, they hope to solve a problem with roots&nbsp;deep in our society.
The chemical manipulation of the mind is bound to have&nbsp;broad appeal
in a culture that encourages escape from problems and views&nbsp;technology
as the key to their solution. It is assumed that young people&nbsp;cannot
sense this, for their perspective is not given any credence. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Tactics like these underscore the basic problems
adults have in dealing&nbsp;with children. Youth, many feel, need to be
policed and guided to become&nbsp;human. Much like the colonized, they
are assumed to be the passive&nbsp;products of adult rules, which justifies
the absence of student participation.&nbsp;More than that, children are
an extension of the parent, not individuals but&nbsp;adult chattel. The
relationship is not consciously viewed so starkly. There&nbsp;are perceived
to be significant areas of concordance between parent and&nbsp;child. But,
tellingly, the PTSA sees youths as adversaries who will emerge&nbsp;from
high school sober only if cajoled, lied to and watched. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">The impotence of children mirrors the powerlessness
of society itself&nbsp;vis-&agrave;-vis the giants that have spring up
within it. We have not created the&nbsp;massive government and corporate
structures of our time, so much as we&nbsp;have been created by them. They
mold even our self-perception. We are&nbsp;sooner to think of ourselves
as consumers than citizens. We know who we&nbsp;are, not by searching within
but by gazing at what we have. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Lest we be unsure of our identity, we are bombarded
with economic&nbsp;indices and public opinion polls that tell us. Even
public opinion is a&nbsp;commodity; no less banal an institution than the
television ad has become&nbsp;the prime marketer of both deodorant and
politics. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Is it any wonder, then, that adults view children
as they do? Locked into a&nbsp;system they cannot control, parents and
schools teach the apathy required to&nbsp;function within that system.
Childhood is the period of socialization, after&nbsp;all. If schools did
not teach the inflexibility of bureaucracy along with&nbsp;chemistry and
the Civil War, they would be failures. Parents do not want&nbsp;children
with egalitarian zeal any more than corporations do. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Society is generally successful in producing
the children it wants. Even&nbsp;the children of the '60s seem to have
sowed their wild oats and followed&nbsp;Jerry Rubin into the Wall Street
investment house. The students in my high&nbsp;school are not especially
alarmed by the PTSA's shenanigans, for they are&nbsp;accustomed to adults
working in the students' name without their consent.&nbsp;The school administration
may not earn their respect, but it almost always&nbsp;wins their acquiescence,
leaving the principal and superintendent to attend&nbsp;to the truly important
tasks of placating angry parents and pleasing the&nbsp;school board. Administrators
strive for a conflict-free school, a frictionless&nbsp;machine that produces
well-adjusted graduates who neither think nor feel&nbsp;too acutely. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">In its quest for smooth functioning, the school
does not begrudge its more&nbsp;ambitious students avenues to diffuse their
political interest. There are&nbsp;student councils and class officerships
and even ad hoc committees of&nbsp;teachers and administrators to which
students are invited. But youth&nbsp;participation is perceived as a generous
frill, not a necessity. If a student&nbsp;speaks out in a meaningful way,
he or she is probably ignored. More likely,&nbsp;however, the student will
toe the administrative line, grateful for having&nbsp;been selected to
represent his or her classmates. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">It cannot be assumed that by cutting the chains
of ageism a force inherent&nbsp;in youth will be liberated—a force that
can render administrators useless,&nbsp;transform children into democratic
citizens and make drug abuse a thing of&nbsp;the past. Ageism is but one
manifestation of the sickness in our society. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Youth liberation, in a comprehensive sense,
is impossible in a materialistic, apolitical society which creeps ever
closer to nuclear self-destruction.&nbsp;As we fight for sexual freedom,
children's rights or women's liberation, it is&nbsp;crucial that we remember
the war of which our battle is just one part. The&nbsp;gay and lesbian
rights movement, for example, nurtured a spirited debate&nbsp;of sexual
mores. But now that the examination of convention has brought&nbsp;the
sexuality of children out of the closet, many gay men and lesbians want&nbsp;to
thrust it back in. Sad paradoxes arise when we forget that the ultimate&nbsp;aim
of our endeavors is a more humane society. The changes we seek are&nbsp;broad
and far-reaching, and they will be realized, if at all, by the work of&nbsp;diverse
movements with a basic ideological sympathy. The outlook is not&nbsp;hopeless.
Who would have thought 15 years ago that a group like NAMBLA&nbsp;could
ever exist? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">A liberation movement demands rights for the
oppressed groups it&nbsp;represents. Implicit is the assumption that oppressed
and oppressor are&nbsp;basically alike, regardless of superficial differences.
But in the case of&nbsp;children and adults, the differences are more than
skin-deep. Merely&nbsp;granting children all the rights and responsibilities
of adults would be a&nbsp;profoundly poor way of handling the problem.
For there is little to object to&nbsp;in the concept of childhood, only
in the way it is realized in our society.&nbsp;Obviously, we need some
sort of gradual path into adulthood; we cannot&nbsp;reinvent civilization
every generation. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">If childhood is the period of socialization,
then it ought to employ those&nbsp;techniques that will result in the most
responsible adult citizens. People&nbsp;tend to treat others as they themselves
are treated. A compassionate&nbsp;citizenry cannot be created from children
who are beaten when they break&nbsp;the rules. Hate cannot be a means to
love, nor irresponsibility a means to&nbsp;responsibility. Yet our society
denies children any chance to be socially&nbsp;useful, gives them little
experience in democratically-run institutions, and&nbsp;withholds from
them power even over their own bodies, expecting all the&nbsp;while to
produce industrious, democratic, responsible adults. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Pragmatism is not the only justification for
liberating children. As&nbsp;human beings, children deserve basic human
rights which, fundamentally,&nbsp;include the rights to food, shelter,
education and medical care. The West has&nbsp;the resources to provide
materially for its youth. It needs to concentrate on&nbsp;other areas as
well. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">Children cannot be excluded from society's
social, economic or political&nbsp;life. They must have consequence as
more than just consumers; they must&nbsp;be respected as individuals and
ought to be expected to respect others in&nbsp;return. They have a right
to satisfy their emotional needs in structures other&nbsp;than the nuclear
family, to control their sexual lives, and to be free from&nbsp;circumcisions,
clitoridectomies and other bodily mutilation imposed without&nbsp;consent.
Children have a right to read what they wish, to speak out and be&nbsp;heard.
They have a right to schools that do not withhold political experience&nbsp;or
encourage racism and sexism. Most of all, children have a right to grow&nbsp;into
responsible adults. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">An age-blind society is not the goal; one in
which a person's age does not&nbsp;radically affect the way he or she is
treated is. The differences between a&nbsp;seven-year-old and a 37-year-old
are too great not to be articulated in social&nbsp;policy. Age restrictions
on motor vehicle operations or voting rights should&nbsp;be tolerated.
To let drivers be of any age would expose people to a probable&nbsp;danger.
To leave voting unrestricted would be putting forth a woefully&nbsp;attenuated
definition of citizenship in which the voter's duties could be&nbsp;carried
out without even the guidance of much experience. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><B><FONT COLOR="#804040">But society has erred on the side of restriction
in its dealing with youth. A&nbsp;view of children as something less than
human has been the backdrop to a&nbsp;host of oppressive measures that
have showed neither young people nor&nbsp;adults at their best. Any improvement
demands not just the humanization&nbsp;of childhood, but a shift toward
a rational and just society. &nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></B></P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#804040">from <B><I>NAMBLA JOURNAL SIX</I> </B>(1983),
Pgs. 6-7.&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<P><A HREF="select.htm"><IMG SRC="m0p7nau7.gif" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=58 WIDTH=58></A><FONT COLOR="#804040">Copyright
NAMBLA, 1997. All rights reserved.</FONT></P>
</BODY>
</HTML>