Re: I HATE hearing news like this....

Parental power as we know it today is a form of authority. And when you consider that it holds at its basis that the only reason parents should have this authority is because they share DNA with their offspring makes it clear that this is not a justifiable reason to uphold that power. I think both parental power and state power should not decide where youths should live, what religion (if any) they practice, how they receive their education, when they are ready for sexual activity, etc. These things must be left up to the youth themselves, because they have a right to the pursuit of happiness. In other words, they have the right to be happy. Youth cannot be liberated under the aegis of parental power. When you have liberation, this means that the state, if it still exists at this time, will simply prevent parents from interfering with the decisions of their kids. It will not have ownership of the kids itself or decide things for the kids.

I don't believe that just having two people control any children is any better than having a "collective" power doing it. I think a fully liberated society is the antitheses of "mob rule," because everybody is free to make their own decisions. I don't agree that just two people or one person having power is less severe than a majority or "mob" having it. I believe in a true democratic system where power is dispersed among everyone, including the minorities. A benevolent dictatorship is still a dictatorship, and too much power in the hands of one or two people is extremely corrupting, as all history has shown. I think a genuine democracy works much better than a benevolent dictatorship. In the U.S. today, we do not have a genuine democracy...we have a plutocracy, which is minority rule. Notice how totalitarianism of some form or another always occurs when you have minority rule. I don't believe there is a single human being who is enlightened enough to rule on his own without abusing his power.

You seem to fear the loss of parental power. If everyone is liberated, then there is no overarching power that enforces that freedom. Freedom is self-maintaining when everyone shares the power equally, because there is no oligarchial minority force to control it. This is why I support socialist measures on maintaining a peaceful and liberated society. Please keep in mind that genuine Marxists do not support the existence of a state. I do not believe in a small group of people, or of one person, making everyone's decisions for them. In a truly peaceful and liberated society, peace should not have to be enforced at gunpoint. So please do not think that I support the existence of a state. I do not support any type of dictatorship, and this includes parental power.

Also please keep in mind that if parental power continues to exist, it's likely that youths will never be free to forge whatever types of relationships they want, including romantic relationships with older people.