How To Be Safe! The Dr Seuss Way!
One of the wonders of fallibility (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/fallibility-risk-living-uncertainty/ ) is learning through trial and error. Trial and error learning is experiential, practical, felt, real and a common mode of focus for children’s literature and cartoons. Such a mode of learning is completely rejected by the ideology of zero harm
One of the joys of being a grandparent is reading to your grandkids and watching cartoons. It’s an education seeing what is presented to children in many of the books and cartoons they read and watch, much on the topic of safety. Indeed, much of the way safety is presented to children is through trial and error learning. One of my favourites is The Bears Holiday (https://booksvooks.com/the-bears-vacation-pdf-stan-berenstain.html by Stan and Jan Berenstain in the Dr Seuss series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss_bibliography ).
It’s interesting to watch Bluey, Homer Simpson and children’s media where the Dad is often portrayed as the rule breaker, overconfident, arrogant and complacent bumbler. The children in many of these cartoons and books are wise, learn from mistakes and act well through intuition. Then again, it’s only fiction and I’m sure none of the models, stereotypes, semiotics, Poetics, discourse, language and narrative has any influence on children. After all, symbols have no power to influence the unconscious (https://safetyrisk.net/whats-in-a-symbol-no-big-deal-eh-safety/ ). Perhaps read:
- Brearly, J., (2004) Give me a child until he is seven: Brain studies and early childhood education. Or,
- Bettelheim, B., (1976) The Uses of Enchantment
Either of these will help dispense of the delusions of safety belief in zero, behaviourism and consciousness.
In The Bears Holiday the word ‘safety’ is often repeated and is most associated with rule breaking, bumbling and incompetence. Intuition and trial and error learning are normalized, this is where the real safety occurs.
We know that this repeated narrative has a profound effect on children indeed, such messaging (https://safetyrisk.net/the-medium-is-the-message/ ) is so ingrained by the age of 7 that these become the cultural stereotypes children take to school and the playground.
Can you imagine if you then tried to tell children the fiction of zero! How crazy can adults be, we all know that zero is a delusional nonsense. We fall down in the playground, get harmed, take risks, learn and then get up again. Zero discourse is anathema to risk and learning.
Only Zero wants to make life boring, static and harm-less. What an unethical and delusional religion (https://safetyrisk.net/the-spirit-of-zero/ ). I’d rather be on The Bears Holiday than face the punitive perfectionist delusion of zero!
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