Chapter 89 parental responsibility

parental responsibility In very ancient times, parents did not know what responsibilities they had for their children.Parents at that time thought that the matter of childbearing was a kind of magic, due to the effect of spirits; they did not know that it was their own power.So at that time, even the concept of "parents" was very vague; let alone the responsibility! (Happhaus once said such words) Their attitudes and methods of treating their children, inferred, are based on two foundations: natural love and traditional superstition; there is no conscious standard, and it can be asserted.Later, with the advancement of people's knowledge, the idea of ​​spirit worship was gradually eliminated; a group of parents realized that children are just the result of sexual intercourse, and there are no gods and monsters to speak of.But what about the relationship of children to their parents?What are the responsibilities of parents towards their children?Those parents who did their part gradually had various ideas.As far as China is concerned, from the time of Mencius to the present, the so-called orthodox thinking probably goes like this: the son continues the ancestor worship, that is, the son lives for the parents, the parents of the parents, ... .Parents have to raise their sons to be adults, to be Xiaozi—the young ones must be able to earn money to support the family, and the old ones must be able to honor their ancestors.But now, the second condition seems to be more important.In addition, marrying a son to a wife is also a major responsibility of the parents - not to the son, but to their ancestors and themselves; because the first purpose of marrying a daughter-in-law is to continue the patriarchal priesthood!As for the daughter, no one paid much attention to it, and some even hated it.Selling her as a prostitute, as a concubine, as a maidservant, fostering her in someone else's family, as someone else's daughter; sending her to a nursery are all common and unimportant things; as for seeing her as a "losing money", that is even more common up!Under such circumstances, parents have almost no responsibility for their daughters!Ordinarily, they just raise them after they are born; when they grow up, they learn some needlework, housework, and wait for marriage from their mothers.There is no certain responsibility for these, and they are only "arbitrary" by the parents.Only when married, the parents have to bear some responsibility, but it is quite slight.At these times, parents finally have a clear responsibility to their sons, and they also have some responsibility to their daughters.But it all starts after the child is born.As for the responsibilities before birth, there is none, and everyone seems to have never thought of it—I'm afraid I'd be surprised if I told them about it!In their vague minds, there are probably only two things: "having a son" and "having more sons", which are hoped before the birth of children-but not responsibilities.Although those who have passed the age of thirty and have not had a son go to take concubines, take tonics, and do everything possible to try to have a son, but it is not a responsibility after all.So these parents who gave birth to children just gave them a life in a daze!Therefore, no matter who, has the right to have children at will.

The development of modern biological science and life science has made "human research" more and more sophisticated. As a result, the view of "human responsibility" has undergone some changes, and the view of "parental responsibility" has been significantly corrected.From biological science, we know that children do not live for their parents; on the contrary, parents mostly live for their children!Rather than "continuing the ancestor worship", it is better to say that "continuing life" is related to the natural requirement of "continuing life", and there is also the requirement of "enlarging or developing life", which was previously buried by customs or ethics. He raised his head again today.Therefore, today's parents should no longer force their children into their own models and call them "Xiaozi", but should allow them to have sufficient strength to develop freely and successfully surpass themselves!As for the equal treatment of sons and daughters, it is even more obvious that it is explained by the life science of sex research and shown by real life.At this time, parents have assumed the responsibilities assigned by the new science, and they cannot be as casual as before.They understand that although having children is an individual right, and more importantly, it is a social service. Therefore, they should bear social responsibility for the matter of childbearing and the accompanying upbringing; Raise them only as your own heirs, and raise them as the next generation of society!In this way, the daughter can be treated as she likes, and the matter of raising the son for the benefit of the family and oneself should be protested.After this kind of view becomes a trend, a new morality will be formed: "Being a parent is the most noble and sacred duty and right of a human being, and it is also the most important opportunity to serve the society!" It's a light, easy thing to do; people have to think about their abilities before they become parents. ——Those who have no parental ability but rashly become parents, so that they give birth to or raise children who are physically or mentally unsound, will be punished by society and conscience.In such a society, children will be blessed.But, ashamed to say, this new morality is only an ideal state!

By our standards, there are almost no responsible parents in today's society—especially China-focused society!In other words, parents have almost no responsibility!Sick people, alcoholics, lunatics, and idiots can openly marry and have children!While some lamented the genetic defects their children received from them, no one ever protested their reproductive rights!Therefore, there is no hope of reducing the disabled and perverted people!People who are so poor that they can't afford food and clothing can have many children; they would rather let them suffer from cold and hunger, or even give them to others and sell them to others, but never doubt their rights!And no one else doubted their rights!As a result, there are many displaced and uneducated children!This determines the tragic fate of our next generation!This is the result of the fact that the average parent has not assumed the social responsibility of procreation.It is also the result of society's laissez-faire on childbearing.So we think that for the sake of society, reproduction should not be free; at least this freedom should be restricted!Not only the mentally and physically handicapped, and those without the economic ability to raise children should be restricted; even those who cannot educate their children, or even cannot educate them according to their own needs and the needs of the next generation of society, should also be restricted. subject to a moral sanction. — to teach them self-sanction, conscious sterility, or birth control.Nowadays, there are many children of rich families and petty bourgeoisie, either because their parents dote on them, or because their parents are busy with their affairs, they cannot have sufficient opportunities to receive a good education, so that they cannot develop a sound personality suitable for the future; If you don’t use the printing plate education in the shop “Zi Yue Pu”, then you will not have a fresh and lively enterprising spirit!In a family with many children, parents are less able to take care of them, so they are more likely to have these tendencies!Although this kind of childbearing disadvantage is not as severe as the previous two, it is the same as the major resistance to "progress"!And this kind of cheating is very common—see among your friends, relatives, children in your family, and even your own children, which ones can really "make their own living"!You will also worry about their—or our—fate. — so it's even more noteworthy.

Now that the standard of living is getting higher and higher, in the petty bourgeoisie, the cost of raising a child is enough to reduce the family's comfort. It is obvious that the number of children is inversely proportional to the amount of comfort.Those who are poor also feel that children are a great oppression.In fact, these situations also existed in the past, but it is not as exciting as it is now.Among the petty bourgeoisie, the emerging intellectual class feels this pain most acutely.But although everyone feels it, they feel that the matter of childbearing is dominated by "nature", beyond the reach of human beings, and they can only be decided by fate.Until the past two years, the knowledge of biology, especially the knowledge of eugenics, has gradually spread to the general intellectuals, so they know that unhealthy fertility can be limited by human power.Mrs. Shanshun came to China last year to spread the theory and method of birth control, which had a great influence. From then on, she knew that not only unhealthy births can be restricted, but healthy births can also be restricted freely as long as the parties are unwilling.Therefore, with regard to children's affairs, more emphasis is placed on before birth than after birth; thus, parents also have a clear responsibility before their children are born.Since parents have free power in the matter of reproduction, it is their fault if they give birth to children who are not healthy, or if they give birth to children and fail to train them.They should be blamed by conscience and blamed by society!Moreover, "being a parent" serves a major social purpose. When estimated from a social standpoint, the responsibility of parents before the birth of their children seems to be greater than the responsibility after the birth of their children!Although the above views have not yet become a fashion, they have indeed given birth to fertile germs, at least among the intellectual class.I hope that the efforts of the intellectual class will, while implementing demonstrations, spread these theories and methods as much as possible to the most remote places and the lowest levels of society; when parents not only "know" that they "have" these responsibilities , and "willing" to "take" these responsibilities on their own shoulders, then a new morality based on eugenics and birth control is established.

This is the gospel for our children and grandchildren! In the near future, I hope that the society will have two conscious sanctions on childbearing: one, moral sanctions, and two, legal sanctions.People with physical and mental defects, such as those who were sick before, should use the law to prohibit their right to bear children, which is legal sanctions.This has already been implemented in eight states in the United States.However, the implementation of such sanctions must meet several conditions in order to be effective.First, medical skills must be developed and be trusted by the society; second, household registration must be detailed and accurate (such as heredity, etc., should be included); third, public health inspections must be held; fourth, there must be a fair and powerful government; tolerance.None of these five things can be achieved in China today, so it is difficult to implement legal sanctions for the time being; we have to work hard in all aspects.However, although it is not possible to prohibit "being a parent", it is possible to dissuade "being a parent" anytime and anywhere.Teach people to know the responsibilities of parents, teach people to know that being a parent now should be the result of free choice—that is, people can freely take matters related to childbearing—teach people to know how unreasonable and irresponsible parents are , How to harm society, how shameful!This is something you can do with love.In this way, giving people a new moral standard to sanction themselves is the starting point of social moral sanction.

Therefore, moral sanctions can be directly started to build now.And the effect of efforts in this area is also easier to see.Among the inappropriate births, except for the unhealthy birth, which can be punished by law in the future, the rest seem to be beyond the reach of the law, so they must be sanctioned entirely by morality.Because moral sanctions are not only easy to start and effective, but also more important; our efforts should naturally focus on this direction! Although unhealthy births can be punished by law in the future, the power of law is sometimes poor, and it still has to rely on moral assistance; moreover, the implementation of law depends on social tolerance, and the foundation of social tolerance must still be built on morality. above.Therefore, unhealthy childbearing also needs moral sanctions; this is especially true now when legal sanctions have not been realized!The sick, the alcoholics, ... We hope that they will feel their physical defects and repent of their sins; then, through the power of repentance, they decide not to pass their sins on to their children and grandchildren, so as to aggravate their own sins!This deprives or suspends one's own parental rights.But this kind of self-awareness is difficult.So we hope that their families, relatives and friends will always remind them, monitor them, and make them vigilant!As for madmen and idiots, there is no self-consciousness at all; it is only up to them to protect people, families, relatives and friends.In this case, we hope that these protectors can understand the responsibility of the society of childbearing and their responsibilities to the next generation, so that they will know what to do, and categorically deprive or stop the defective protected person's right to be a parent !It is best for these types of people not to marry or separate from the opposite sex; at least they should be sterile by birth control!As for those who are so poor that they can't even "raise" their children, we can easily gain their sympathy by teaching them not to abuse their children.Just teach them the easiest and cheapest method of birth control, and explain and persuade them earnestly, and they will gradually believe and practice it.But in this case, the process of teaching them to believe in our method is more difficult; because it conflicts with their belief in nature and destiny, and also conflicts with the traditional idea of ​​​​multiple children-they will feel that this is a problem. This kind of crime is like abortion in the old days; I will wonder whether this is a trick of foreigners to take something out of their bodies!But traditional thinking, after all, is not stubborn, and the suspicion of magic is expected to be reduced due to the ingenuity of the propaganda method and the long time; and the economic oppression is the inevitable practical oppression in front of them. Resistant!Therefore, as long as the propaganda is correct, they will gradually believe and practice it.Only the rich—bureaucrats or businessmen—and some petty bourgeoisie, the idea of ​​moral sanction is extremely difficult to penetrate!They have considerable economic ability and stubborn traditional ideas. They will not and are unwilling to know that birth control should be restricted; they don't know what inappropriate birth is!They only bear children naturally and treat them with traditional attitudes and methods. The result is to put them in their own models and make their own sacrifices!In this way, the development of children's personality and spiritual life is destroyed as much as possible, but they think that they have fulfilled their parents' responsibilities!This kind of misunderstanding of responsibility is actually worse than ignorance of responsibility; because the ignorance is easy to incorporate into advice, while the misunderstanding is often self-righteous and stubborn and unwilling to change.Such people are not fit to be parents!Because they cannot take real responsibility.For these people, although we find it difficult to make them believe in us, we must do our best to let them know some principles of biological evolution and social evolution, so that they can take children as the center, and can "understand them, guide them, Liberate them”; thus improving all previous inappropriate parenting methods.And let them have the determination: When they feel that they cannot bear the responsibility of this kind of proper education, or do not want to bear this responsibility, they should take the method of birth control resolutely, and stop following it, causing mistakes to others and themselves.This kind of propaganda should naturally be undertaken by the emerging intellectual class. Although the emerging intellectual class can be said to belong to the petty bourgeoisie, they feel particularly oppressed by the matter of childbirth. The attitude of awakening is different from the rest of the same class.

But a question remains: How will the parents of the existing children of various inappropriate births be accountable for them?I thought that for the offspring of people who are sick and willow, we have to let Mr. Nature do his tricks, so as not to allow the false seeds to spread any more.For those whose parents are unable to raise children from poor families, the society will try to accommodate them as much as possible, such as setting up more orphanages for poor children.But the power of social containment is limited after all, and most of them must be left to Mr. Nature to deal with!This is very tragic, but since the economic organization cannot be changed for a while, what can be done?We have no choice but to "do what we can".As for those who bring up children based on the elders, we hope that they can improve, as mentioned in the previous section.There is also a tendency among the emerging intellectual class to not want to have children; they often feel indifferent or even disgusted with children who were born carelessly in the past, so they are unwilling to do their best for them.Here, I want to clearly point out that the most important principle of biological evolution and the development of life is that the previous generation sacrifices to the next generation, and sacrifice is a ladder of progress!May they—in fact, I am included—sacrifice a considerable amount of energy in the upbringing of their children for the development of the next generation; may they use great patience to build a solid foundation for the future lives of their children, and may they remember their own happiness, and don’t forget the happiness of your children!This is a lot of self-cultivation.In short, the responsibility of parents is to ensure that their children have a good life, which is better than their own; on the one hand, they also ensure that the society has some healthy, good, and suitable elements for survival; this cannot be done casually.

In order to make more days suitable for living in society and fewer days unsuitable for living, we have reassessed the responsibilities of parents: Parents are not irresponsible. The responsibility of parents should not be based on the elders and the family; it should be based on the young and society. We hope that parents in society are responsible; there are no irresponsible parents! "Being parents is the noblest and most sacred duty and right of human beings, and it is also the greatest opportunity to serve the society." This is the new morality pointed out by biology and sociology.

Since it is possible to change the responsibility of parents from unclear to clear, it is not necessarily impossible to change from incorrect to correct; the establishment of new morality always depends on our efforts, which is especially important compared with the responsibility of parents to their children. Responsibility to all children!work hard! (Originally published in the "New Minyi Daily Xinghuo Supplement" on February 3, 1923)