Re: For dante, qtns2di4 and Baldur

I couldn't play the link for some reason but I think I get the message there. We were and still are intolerant as a society in many matters so I can agree with that point.

The basis for my views perhaps are conditioned by my upbringing I will confess since we cannot really avoid that but fortunately I did have a rather easy-going mother which probably made me rather more open-minded and thoughtful than many. Probably the best thing she did pass on to me was a decent set of morals so that I think I was a reasonably nice and charitable child who usually shunned those who were nasty or brutish to others - not that such an attitude made me many friends but the few I had were good friends. I have always tried to listen to both sides of any argument (Libra, lol) and if there is no weighty evidence for one particular view then I will leave the question open.

My views regarding children I think come from simple observations of them, studying relevant literature, as well as interacting fairly widely with many children so that it is really based on my perceptions of them and of what "childhood" is rather than coming from my own background. Having recently read Kincaid's book Erotic Innocence I can understand how the Western cutural situation will have affected how we will view children today and how it is not uniform around the world. My perceptions do I think come from the innate developmental process that all children will undergo but I presume that this is not set in stone either and will be affected by cultural considerations. However, since nearly all countries will presumably be heading in the direction of industrialisation as has happened in the West then what happens in the West is likely to be what happens to them too. It is not inevitable but it is most likely.