belonging
property of the community
the collective
the community
your children
your kids
your kids belong to the collective
your property
Are Your Kids 'Your' Property or 'the Community's'?
@mythociate (21432)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
April 20, 2013 5:50pm CST
Glenn Beck saw a national promo which said 'your children belong to the community' and took it to imply http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/04/08/terrifying-msnbc-promo-your-kids-belong-to-the-collective/ "Your children belong to the collective."
I can only imagine what it would be like if a 'community-leader' took away MY child, claiming it as "belonging to the community"---but I'm not thinking that's what the promo meant. It meant that children belong to the community in much the same way that ADULTS belong to the community
(i.e. the way that 'the community exists almost-totally independent of the individuals in it ... if a large-enough group sustains the community, it goes on without all the ones who leave it.)
What do you think?
7 responses
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
21 Apr 13
Children belong to themselves. They may need guidance and discipline and taken care of until they can take care of themselves, but they're not slaves. Parents shouldn't treat children as property, and government sure as hell shouldn't.
Adults don't "belong" to a community either. Being a part of something doesn't mean that something owns you, and not to mention that "community" is a concept and isn't possible with participants.
If it's a "community" of people forced to be part of it, it's a prison. It's gen pop, not a community. 
@MoonGypsy (4606)
• United States
21 Apr 13
most people are forced to be a part of a community. you sacrifice alot and give up alot of yourself to become a part of the collective.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
21 Apr 13
Right, & you have to SERVE someone or something. That's how the physical universe works---the rule is Quid pro Quo
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
21 Apr 13
& Borg was a STAR TREK-metaphor for 'groups that exist for the purpose of assimilating all other groups into them'---the early Catholic Church, America, some branches of Islam, maybe other groups?
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
21 Apr 13
Property is a responsibility, but that doesn't mean a responsibility is always property. I'm responsible for the actions of one of my employees, but they are not my property. They're not my employer's property either. I'm not saying that's the same as having a child, but simply stressing the difference between property and responsibility.
@6precious102 (4043)
• United States
21 Apr 13
Taskr: Well said!
mythociate: If children are owned by anyone, does that mean that the owner, whether a parent or the community gets to say whether or not a mother can abort her child, or that they have a right to sell their property?
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
22 Apr 13
Many on the left feel that the government is the owner of all people and should take care of them. The individual is not capable of making decisions. We can't decide what size of soda to drink, where we should smoke legal products, we can't know when our children have an abortion but with approval o the government they can get one. Now they are trying to convince us that the government knows what is best for children rather than the parents.
@MoonGypsy (4606)
• United States
21 Apr 13
i agree that your children are not your own. they belong to the government. that's why there are government agencies out there that can take your kids away from you just like that. it is the law that the state can over ride your parental rights, if they see fit to do so. we, adults also belong to the government.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
21 Apr 13
Amen.
As much as we hate to put it this way, the government IS our "mas`sa." But we aren't even 'slaves' with human rights; oh we pretend to have human rights as long as they don't interfere with the government's business, but it's revealed that we're little more than "plow animals" if we decide not to push the plow and yet -still think the government will help us 
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
27 Apr 13
Excellent discussion and great responses.
Unfortunately we are being ever so subtly conditoned to accept we are 'government property' and many many of us are waking up to that propaganda.
Trouble is, we have been pretty much bought and paid for when we accept the premise that the government should 'fix it', whatever IT is.
@ErikAlexander (6)
• United States
21 Apr 13
I think that it's 'your' child. It's your responsibility to raise the kid so they can contribute to the community later in their life. Although this is a weird discussion and have never really thought about it before.
@MoonGypsy (4606)
• United States
21 Apr 13
i don't understand. why is this such a weird conversation?
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
21 Apr 13
It's weird because it's kind of a shift-in-perspective, like coming from 'thinking people own themselves' to realizing that 'people are owned by everyone who pays them.'
(Or Something Like That. Or Not.)
Something Rev. Dr. Charles Stanley (or one of his writers) quoted from C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity might open your mind on this: something about the fact that EVERY POSESSION ON EARTH is merely ours 'on loan'---that 'you can't take it with you,' so why fuss over it now?
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
21 Apr 13
As with others here, I don't like the term "property." Of course, that was the term used by the left wing moron we're talking about, not the term used by parents. My son is not my property, he is my son. I am in charge of him, I am responsible for him, and I make all the decisions related to his well being until he is old enough to make decisions for himself. He is NOT the property of the community or any such collectivist crap.
