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Technologos comments on Our House, My Rules - Less Wrong
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Comments (229)
(assuming you meant to say "I don't see much of a moral difference between .... but I do see a difference between...")
Well, let's poke and prod at that idea a bit. What about spanking someone else's kid? If your answer is different there... why?
What about "for talking back"?
What of the case in which it's "for disobedience" or such?
What about an adult? (remember, we're not talking about taking them to court or whatever, just grabbing him or her and spanking, no appeal, no reasoning, etc etc...)
More generally, even if there is merit in the abstract, do we want to trust parents (as mere humans) unconditionally in this matter?
Did the mother (or father) tend to threaten or hit him?
Simple. I might think it would be a good idea if I were allowed to spank other people's kids. This does not mean I think it would be a good idea for any adult to spank any kid (or, especially, my kid). I can recognize that laws and customs are generally good things, even if I think they might be better if they didn't apply to me in particular.
I think I should be allowed to spank other adults too.
Supposing you had to decide on a rule that both you and others had to follow. Would you prefer "people can spank other people's kids"? And would that be different than your preference for the rule of whether or not "people can spank their own kids"? And if so, why?
I can't do that. I have to decide on a rule that both my and others follow and that can be effectively enforced. Things may well work better overall if no one spanked their kids, or they may not - just because bad parents overuse spanking does not mean preventing it will make them into better parents. But it would be really, really expensive to enforce a rule that prevents other people from spanking their own kids. It is not that difficult to prevent people from spanking other people's kids. "Difficulty of implementation" is an excellent reason to support one rule but not the other, in my view.