Middle class adults are very conflicted I think that they must
use force with children when they are in fact trying to convert
them to the m-c cultural norm of indirect coercion (which absent
the threat of harm we like to think of more nicely as 'reasoning
together' so long as the conclusion of the reasoning is the 'right'
one, i.e. our adult one). We are also very skilled in underestimating
the combined emotional and physical pain of our force and
punishments by the twin rationalizations of 'we didn't really
hurt them seriously' (i.e. doesn't count as child abuse today), and
'after all it's not that big an issue really, they'll soon get
over it'. But I suspect (remember?) that what are small pains to
us are not so small in the Umwelt of the child, and that we never
do get over the pains of being controlled by hurts, we just come
to identify with our oppressors. Consider this a darker variation
on Freudian models of identification and internalization (which
are themselves grounded in the castration fear of Oedipal fame,
perhaps a condensation for Freud of the unbearable truth that
civilization is built by inflicting pain on children). JAY.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
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