This Is Mass Infantilization

We, the adults in this country, are not children. And this bears repeating.

We are not children.

Children are shaped by family, society and various social structures during their formative years. What each child brings to his or her future world directly relates to how all of the preceding years went. A day comes when the formative years end. I’ll let the experts debate on the specifics, but I would argue that it is not 30 or 40+.

The point is that little humans have not had the requisite time needed to form in mind, body, heart and spirit. But, big humans have. And herein lies the rub: It’s when the big, little humans have too much control over too many things when life loses its focus on the greater good. Why? Because children only see themselves and their own needs. Therefore, when they are trapped in adult bodies, it’s a recipe for disaster. They may have gone through puberty physically, but did not make it over the hurdle emotionally.

In a perfect world, kids grow out of being kids and manage to participate in society as whole, rational human beings. (See fig. 1) But when they get stuck somewhere along the human development continuum, and they are driven by an appetite for power, you end up with a bunch of narcissists. Or, as my dad used to say, “A twelve-year-old boy trapped in a man’s body is a madman.” Of course, you can gender swap here. The point remains the same.

With this in mind, I am as puzzled as I am offended by the current tenor of our elected officials. That they have chosen to employ parenting tactics over management and leadership strategies to manage our country is highly disturbing.

When you have authorities, scolding, bullying, issuing ultimatums and threatening punishments to society at large the way parents do to get their kids to sit still and eat their vegetables, it indicates a troubling trend. They appear to be stuck somewhere along the continuum which has prevented them from engaging in thoughtful, inclusive and thorough debate. Not because they are not smart enough, but because they are not mature enough. Life becomes distorted and disfigured on a grand scale when you treat people like children, when they are, in fact, fully grown adults.

And here we are.

Reason and respect are gone. Viewpoints are emotional and extreme. We get bickering, name-calling and tantrums instead of rational, reasonable conversations. They may as well just jam their fingers in their ears and start screaming, “La, la, la, la, la, la,” you know, like kids do.

It’s time for a time out.

Here is a case in point: Biden’s federal vaccine mandates are old news now, but in the weeds was the fact that Congress and the courts were not required to adhere to the mandate even though they are all, in fact, federal employees.

The question arose, “Why is the entire country being forced to comply with a rule in which Congress has declined to participate, and enforce – on themselves?”

Their answer? “Because we don’t have to,” or “We can’t due to privacy issues.”

Let that sink in for a minute.

It’s the classic hypocrisy of parenthood: "Do as I say but not as I do, and don't talk back."

People have pushed for basic explanations and understanding on things like, what the ingredients are in the vaccines, why Japan now includes a warning label and what is causing hundreds of young, healthy athletes to suddenly collapse on the field, often clutching their hearts as they fall, and also, often dying.

We are entering a new phase of this pandemic. We now have the benefit of time, which we didn’t have two years ago. We are finally in a position to gather information, a luxury of retrospect not available when people first started getting sick. Questions and debate are vital to the process if we hope to successfully address what comes next.

But instead of seizing the moment and taking advantage of the opportunity to explore these basic, common-sense questions, people are either ignored or told to “behave” like good little boys and girls.

For the sake of argument, this is not governing. It's mass infantilization and it is not good for our souls.