I particularly like her term “intellectual food”. I find the illustrative power of metaphors indispensible for simplifying complex concepts in discussions with others (and yes, while exploring ideas myself). Though not new, the analogy that ideas nourish the brain just as food nourishes the body is compelling in multiple ways. Beyond the obvious, consider also our “diet culture”: masses of people, (pardon the double entendre) seeking optimal health through the latest agglomeration of anecdotal results, quick-fix desperation, popular opinion, fraudulent marketeers–and an occasional sprinkling of scientific research. This is an (almost) comical parallel to the sea of ideas–most bad, some good–and its effect on our minds. Perhaps this “dietary relativism” is at the root of a person’s worsening physical health, just as moral relativism wrecks his mental faculties. Given that teaching a child to think largely obviates the need for careful rationing of what he sees and hears, the parental clamoring for censorship is a somewhat unremarkable abdication of responsibilities: just look at how many people’s kids are disgusting, lethargic, and fat.

I really enjoy your and all the other Voices for Reason posts. Keep up the great work.

Best,

Ben Rathbone

I am now 25 years old. When I was younger I was taught what most children are taught; a flawed world view based on romantic notions from fiction that bears little resemblance to the objective world.

As a child most of these ideas never took hold of me because they couldn’t be adequately substantiated by the people who taught them. The tell-tale sign of such a teaching was the inability of the teacher to answer my questions without becoming emotional and dodgy.

Despite that, the greatest teething pains I had growing up came from romances taught to me as fact. I can trace each and every moment of greatest suffering and subsequent growth to overcoming a flawed and contradictory philosophical idea in myself that took root. These experiences are my greatest affirmation of the requirement of philosophy set on objective reality and principals.

Children are taught these kinds of fiction as a matter of course. The government is taking more and more control away from parents who expect laws to ‘protect the children’ be created. The goal seems to be to keep children innocent for as long as possible. That seems inconsistent with preparing them to live in the real world.

One day I may decide to have children. If the primary responsibility in parenting is to prepare your child to live in the world of men then I don’t see how anything is served by ‘protecting’ them from exposure with flawed and contradictory ideologies. They must be taught to question and think rationally in order to defend themselves.

I find the concept of raising children is rarely touched on in Objectivist thought.

Thank you for the blog.

As a parent it is your responsibility to educate your child about the objective world and how to live in it.