Outsourcing Parenting: The Cho Family & The Immigrant Experience

IMMIGRATION, The West

Alex, in the Comments Section appended to my column, “Evil, Not Ill,” makes quite a few assumptions. He also appears to approve of spanking and destroying a child’s toys as disciplinary measures, but not of calling a monster “an idiot,” as Cho’s aunt dared to. Sticks are fine, but not words!? How does our valued contributor know, moreover, so much about Cho’s father? Maybe the family was scared of social services?

When my family and I arrived in North America, my daughter was accustomed to a strong parental presence in her life. However, she was young, and kept on hearing, in her Canadian school, about the things parents can and can’t do. Subject matter was less a topic in the schools than the child’s rights vis-a-vis his or her mouth-breathing parents.
As I am certainly a fire-breathing dragon when it comes to the state’s interference with my child, I fought them all the way, and made sure she understood the logic of the battle. One day, when I laid down the law about some or another thing, the little minx looked at me with those huge doe eyes, and said, “I can call social services; they’ll make you change your mind.” I sat her down and told her what could befall her if the “Sapphic Sisters from Social Services” arrived to take her away from me. That sorted her out; kids are very liberal, they want all the license in the world, but they do not want to be removed from the people who love them. She realized she preferred being raised by mom than a foster family of the state’s choosing.

There were countless other incidents. Many immigrant families from traditional societies are simply intimidated by the customs in their new abode. Or lack the intellectual and financial wherewithal to negate them —believe me, it’s a constant, uphill battle. Vigilance is eternal when it comes to state schools and their staff. As an immigrant from a traditional to a statist society, I can empathize with the Cho family’s putative plight (I have no idea if this is what transpired, but I suspect my hunch is correct). You have to have intellectual and financial resources to be there constantly so as to deprogram the kid. I know; I did it.
The response the Cho family has issued sounded so very sincere and sad. Unlike the American families that have unleashed their brats on the community —never heard the “Sorry” word from the Columbine creeps’ parents —this Korean family humbly begged for forgiveness. It is my hunch, as I said above, that this is a family fragmented by a move to a progressive society, where parenting must be outsourced to state-sanctioned experts-cum-asses —the teletwits you see on TV —or else.

Outsourcing Parenting: The Cho Family & The Immigrant Experience

Canada, Education, Family, Government, IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, The West

Alex, in the Comments Section appended to my column, “Evil, Not Ill,” makes quite a few assumptions. He also appears to approve of spanking and destroying a child’s toys as disciplinary measures, but not of calling a monster “an idiot,” as Cho’s aunt dared to. Sticks are fine, but not words!? How does our valued contributor know, moreover, so much about Cho’s father? Maybe the family was scared of social services?

When my family and I arrived in North America, my daughter was accustomed to a strong parental presence in her life. However, she was young, and kept on hearing, in her Canadian school, about the things parents can and can’t do. Subject matter was less a topic in the schools than the child’s rights vis-a-vis his or her mouth-breathing parents.
As I am certainly a fire-breathing dragon when it comes to the state’s interference with my child, I fought them all the way, and made sure she understood the logic of the battle. One day, when I laid down the law about some or another thing, the little minx looked at me with those huge doe eyes, and said, “I can call social services; they’ll make you change your mind.” I sat her down and told her what could befall her if the “Sapphic Sisters from Social Services” arrived to take her away from me. That sorted her out; kids are very liberal, they want all the license in the world, but they do not want to be removed from the people who love them. She realized she preferred being raised by mom than a foster family of the state’s choosing.

There were countless other incidents. Many immigrant families from traditional societies are simply intimidated by the customs in their new abode. Or lack the intellectual and financial wherewithal to negate them —believe me, it’s a constant, uphill battle. Vigilance is eternal when it comes to state schools and their staff. As an immigrant from a traditional to a statist society, I can empathize with the Cho family’s putative plight (I have no idea if this is what transpired, but I suspect my hunch is correct). You have to have intellectual and financial resources to be there constantly so as to deprogram the kid. I know; I did it.
The response the Cho family has issued sounded so very sincere and sad. Unlike the American families that have unleashed their brats on the community —never heard the “Sorry” word from the Columbine creeps’ parents —this Korean family humbly begged for forgiveness. It is my hunch, as I said above, that this is a family fragmented by a move to a progressive society, where parenting must be outsourced to state-sanctioned experts-cum-asses —the teletwits you see on TV —or else.

UPDATED: 'EVIL, NOT ILL'

Crime, IMMIGRATION

“To listen to the nation’s addiction and psychiatric gurus is to come to believe that crimes are caused, not committed. Perpetrators don’t do the crime, but are driven to their dirty deeds by a confluence of uncontrollable factors, victims of societal forces or organic brain disease.”
A well-aimed bullet would have stopped Cho. But gun-free zones are not the only areas in need of reclamation. The concept of the individual as a responsible, self-determining agent is the foundation of a free society. Liberty requires that psychiatric mumbo-jumbo not be allowed to oust morality…”

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily.com column, “Evil, Not Ill.” It leads the Commentary Page. Barely-a-Blog participants will be familiar with some of the arguments.

Update: The indefatigable Thomas Szasz, the world’s leading critic of psychiatry, liked the following lines from my column best:

“Police and campus authorities responded to Cho’s stalking, pyromania, and voyeurism by medicalizing his misbehavior. As the nation’s pseudo-experts generally advise, Cho was referred to a mental health facility.”

I’d like to welcome Robert Reavis to Barely a Blog. He is a District Judge in the American “Heartland.” His colorful post on BAB today gives me a fresh appreciation of the many fabulous Americans I’ve “met” through my writing.

Now, with respect to the criminal Cho. Consider: the Korean wing of his family, an aunt to be specific, has called him, “that idiot.”? Koreans back home have a strong conservative streak. Saving face, personal pride and dignity are of the utmost importance to them. The move to the US probably severed the kind of family and community structures and value systems that might have sorted this misfit out early on in life.
Suddenly the university is not permitted to–and has no desire to–divulge Cho’s shenanigans to his family. The family is excluded. The progressives on campus consider his misbehavior a private “medical” affair. Back in Korea, the family would have handled the boy early on. They’d have realized he was severely limited —something our educational geniuses didn’t–and made clear to him what they’d tolerate from him; punishing his first sign of aggression, and placing him in a strict work environment–a dry cleaning business perhaps, not a college. A place where he’d do repetitive, calming, rote activity.
Yeah, the multicultural immigrant experience is not such a good thing for the immigrant who hails from adaptive, strong communities and families.
I was intrigued, but not surprised, to learn, moreover, that the incidence of mental health problems among Koreans is extremely low. Could that correlate with the fact that that culture views it as a stigma? Hence the more traditional Korean gets the message and doesn’t act out, as he would in the broader American society. Koreans remain well-functioning because there is no positive reinforcement associated with acting loopy.
In popular American culture, the mental disease construct has been so popularized and entrenched by the pseudo-experts that it is associated with rewards: attention, etc. To claim a mental disease is to be seen as good, virtuous, courageous, a hero struggling against all odds (all rubbish, of course).

UPDATED: ‘EVIL, NOT ILL’

Crime, IMMIGRATION

“To listen to the nation’s addiction and psychiatric gurus is to come to believe that crimes are caused, not committed. Perpetrators don’t do the crime, but are driven to their dirty deeds by a confluence of uncontrollable factors, victims of societal forces or organic brain disease.”
A well-aimed bullet would have stopped Cho. But gun-free zones are not the only areas in need of reclamation. The concept of the individual as a responsible, self-determining agent is the foundation of a free society. Liberty requires that psychiatric mumbo-jumbo not be allowed to oust morality…”

The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily.com column, “Evil, Not Ill.” It leads the Commentary Page. Barely-a-Blog participants will be familiar with some of the arguments.

Update: The indefatigable Thomas Szasz, the world’s leading critic of psychiatry, liked the following lines from my column best:

“Police and campus authorities responded to Cho’s stalking, pyromania, and voyeurism by medicalizing his misbehavior. As the nation’s pseudo-experts generally advise, Cho was referred to a mental health facility.”

I’d like to welcome Robert Reavis to Barely a Blog. He is a District Judge in the American “Heartland.” His colorful post on BAB today gives me a fresh appreciation of the many fabulous Americans I’ve “met” through my writing.

Now, with respect to the criminal Cho. Consider: the Korean wing of his family, an aunt to be specific, has called him, “that idiot.”? Koreans back home have a strong conservative streak. Saving face, personal pride and dignity are of the utmost importance to them. The move to the US probably severed the kind of family and community structures and value systems that might have sorted this misfit out early on in life.
Suddenly the university is not permitted to–and has no desire to–divulge Cho’s shenanigans to his family. The family is excluded. The progressives on campus consider his misbehavior a private “medical” affair. Back in Korea, the family would have handled the boy early on. They’d have realized he was severely limited —something our educational geniuses didn’t–and made clear to him what they’d tolerate from him; punishing his first sign of aggression, and placing him in a strict work environment–a dry cleaning business perhaps, not a college. A place where he’d do repetitive, calming, rote activity.
Yeah, the multicultural immigrant experience is not such a good thing for the immigrant who hails from adaptive, strong communities and families.
I was intrigued, but not surprised, to learn, moreover, that the incidence of mental health problems among Koreans is extremely low. Could that correlate with the fact that that culture views it as a stigma? Hence the more traditional Korean gets the message and doesn’t act out, as he would in the broader American society. Koreans remain well-functioning because there is no positive reinforcement associated with acting loopy.
In popular American culture, the mental disease construct has been so popularized and entrenched by the pseudo-experts that it is associated with rewards: attention, etc. To claim a mental disease is to be seen as good, virtuous, courageous, a hero struggling against all odds (all rubbish, of course).