Friday, September 26, 2008

I wonder if people's parental status affects their opinion about Omar Khadr

I have no basis for this theory, not even anecdotal evidence, but it occurred to me as something that some people might think.

The people who want to keep Omar Khadr on Guantanamo generally support their argument at least partially on his family's political opinions. I wonder if parents are more likely to feel this way as compared with non-parents? Parents try to instill their own values in their children, so it stands to reason that they might be more likely to think people share their parents' values and that this attitude is permanent. (I've noticed that when people become parents, they seem much less able to identify with the child half of a parent-child relationship, even though they are still someone's child themselves.) I have a theory that Omar Khadr's natural adolescent rebellion might have turned him into a moderate if he'd gotten to spend his adolescence in a more normal environment, but I've never had anyone who is a parent agree with me that this was even a possibility.

If parents are more likely to want to punish him based on his family's political opinions, it would also be interesting to see whether this changes based on the age of the person's kids.

3 comments:

laura k said...

"(I've noticed that when people become parents, they seem much less able to identify with the child half of a parent-child relationship, even though they are still someone's child themselves.)"

Is that ever true. One of the many great things about not having children is that I am one more adult willing to think from the child's POV and to empathize with children.

impudent strumpet said...

Of course the problem is when parents don't take your thoughts from the child's POV seriously b/c you're not a parent.

Parent: "Behold, my new parenting strategy!"
Me: "You know, my parents tried that on me when I was a kid and it didn't work at all for these reasons."
Parent: "What do you know? You don't have kids!"

laura k said...

I get that all the time.