Archive for the ‘My Son, The Doctor’ Category
Motile Prestige Prospecting Devices
Once the child has been brought into the world in order to satisfy the neighbours, it must be made to behave so as to impress them. The “morality” thereby taught means, not what sort of person you are inside, but whether you uphold the reputation of your parents among their peers. Although this Henry James […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Sycophantic Technology
All parents will say, if asked, that they are bringing up their children to become good citizens. In many cases it appears that the parents’ idea of a good citizen is by no means someone who treats all his fellow-citizens with consideration and humanity; for how else do children grow up to display hatred and […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
The Nameless Heir
I knew a man who referred to, and even addressed, his son as, “My son and heir”. In this way he was unconsciously confessing that he regarded his son primarily as a reflection of his own glory and guarantor of his social position, a tool of his own prestige and continuity. The son as an […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Magical Garments
Suits are not so much status technology as status magic. They magically confer parental approval on offspring who could otherwise not achieve it. The mechanism is that others approve the suit, and thereby approve the parents. Who cares who is inside the suit, as long as the agreement among parents to respect one another for […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Presents For Shaming
After a certain age, varying between about twelve to eighteen, parents’ birthday and holiday-season presents to their offspring cease to be about giving them things that they might like, and instead focus on symbolic reproaches, correction and shaming into desired behaviour. Such presents should be either something the children will obviously not want, so that […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Unhappiness As A Crime
I know a man whose father used to tell him, “You’re a very unhappy person”. Now, such words may be said compassionately, or with concern; but in this case they were said in an accusatory manner, in precisely the same tone as one might say, “You, Sir, are a thief and a liar!” Perhaps for […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
A Most Revealing Question
I am quite sure that I was not the only child to be continually asked, “Why does everything have to be so difficult with you?” It is my impression that this is a very common piece of rhetoric. Now, a child cannot deconstruct his parents’ gamy utterances, because he has almost no experience of the […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Crisis Maximisation
I have known two people, a man and a woman, who reported the same peculiar experience with their parents: they were both “good” teenagers, in the sense that they did well at school, never took drugs, never stole, never crashed the car, never got into trouble with the police, never caught a STD, and never […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Three Indicted Occupations
When I was a youngster, some friends and I amused ourselves by making lists of the professions that we thought should never to be allowed to have children: the Big Three were always teachers, priests and shrinks. Some added military officers as a fourth, while others vehemently disagreed and reported that “army brats” seemed to […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
Advice To Boasters
One advantage of marriage is that it makes obnoxious boasting more acceptable. Consider French kitemaker André Cassagnes, who among other things invented the Etch-a-Sketch toy. Since he could not afford to patent it, someone else got his name on the patent and the credit. According to his obituary in The Economist, André never seemed to […]
In: PARENTAL STATUS TECHNOLOGY, My Son, The Doctor
