by Milito » Thu May 29, 2003 3:27 pm
[quote author=Raya link=board=13;threadid=131;start=0#622 date=1054219538]<br />And in conclusion...<br />If we're talking about the education of children who expect, some day, to be in power... whatever they might be taught about democracy and oligarchy, the life experience of a young person tends to be quite restricted - so I would expect a young person to feel the need for autonomy more strongly. Thus I can understand finding favour with oligarchy, which gives a ruler more power (though perhaps, more responsibility) than democracy...<br />[/quote]<br /><br />That may actually explain the monarchy fixation, too, if you think about it. A monarchy gives a single person the power to "fix" things, if necessary, and if you're dealing with an "ideal" monarch who actually does place the interests of the people he/she is ruling over everything else. If a young person is in a position of being not only under the authority of teachers and parents, but of dealing with pressure from peers to act, think or feel in ways completely at odds with his/her own inclinations, the idea of not having to deal with conflicting demands from anyone - particularly in cases where the majority/mob direction is seen to be short-sighted, harmful or both - could be very appealing. I also suspect that, as people grow up, there's an inclination to cling to that "if only we didn't have to deal with committees!" feeling, which is why adults are willing to teach the literature which so contradicts political ideologies. A couple of Rudyard Kipling stories (of all things!) come to mind in considering the question, actually. The first is "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", which is a semi-autobiographical short story and concerns a kid who gets labelled a "black sheep" (before he starts school!), and winds up in social isolation at home and at school as a result. The second is a full-scale book, "Stalky and Co", about some kids at a boarding school. Again, the characters do not tend to be of the "go with the crowd" sort, and again, there are autobiographical elements in the book, so I'd venture to suggest in both cases that an example of an "outsider" literary figure looking for an ideal authority figure to make injustice go away can be seen. (Then there's the chapter in "Stalky" which involves the sabotaging of a Latin exam, which is very funny......)<br /><br />Kilmeny
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