"John Stumbles" wrote in message
news:zEVjc.643$7S2.250@newsfe1-


Sorry for hitting send too quickly ...

Man, in my opinion, is the only creature which attacks for no good
reason.

Isn't that tending to inverted specieism (sp?) (or misanthropy)? Humans
are
part of nature too, and our behaviour is as explicible as that of other
animals if you delve deep enough into people's motivations and mental and
physiological processes. In other words there are always reasons, though
whether these are 'good' depends on your point of view and values. There's
a
school of though that we all act out of good intentions however perversely
these manifest themselves in actions. (I don't suppose this view is
particularly novel given the age of the adage about the pavement of the
road
to hell.)

The word 'good' has several shades of meaning.

A school of thought is just that - A school of thought. There are others.


We must be rational about these things. And please don't say that a
three
year old can't understand about these things, of course he can't. But he
can
learn from others' attitudes.

I wonder if you've read "The Continuum Concept"? Small children playing
freely but safely around sharp tools and weapons and dangerous wildlife,
the
overprotected child drowning in the swimming pool at the first unguarded
opportunity? (It doesn't sound as if you need to read it actually, but
maybe
it'll be a help to other parents as I think it was to me.)

I've never even heard of it. When I had children (five in seven years) I was
too busy to read child rearing handbooks - and of course in my arrogance I
don't suppose I'd have thought I needed them. Why should an author know more
about how to bring up my children than I did?

Our children did fall and hurt themselves in other ways but not fatally.
They learned by advice and experience what to avoid. One was bitten by a dog
which had just whelped, the daughter had no idea of the defensive nature of
an animal in that condition but she did after it had been explained that it
wasn't a 'naughty' dog. I don't remember any of them ever being stung.

Two damaged themselves very foolishly and one seriously when they were in
the early teens, by fire. It was their own fault and they felt very guilty
about it, now they are both ambassadors for fire prevention and avoiding
such accidents. They couldn't have learned that from any book.


He can't learn about the dangers of road transport either - but I bet
he's
had quite a few car journeys, each of which is a potential danger.

It's not the journeys that are particulaly dangerous about roads!

If you don't use the roads to make journeys you don't get involved in
accidents.

Mary