Spare The Rod and Spoil The Child?

This is about a story that I came across a few days ago and I though it would be as good a news piece as any to do some commentary on. It concerns the case of Rosalina Gonzales, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of injuring a child, for what amounted to simply spanking her child with her hand. Judge Jose Longoria seemed to think it was a big deal, saying "In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don't spank children." Here is a video from the courtroom.

This is the link to the story that I quoted from and I would recommend looking through the comments below as they relate to an  issue that I am going to bring up later.



Now coming from a libertarian and anti-authoritarian perspective, I tend to be against such forms of discipline. I hope children can be taught to be kind and respectful to others without resorting to such methods.I also don't think highly of the whole scared straight phenomenon, I'd like to hope children can be convinced not to become muggers,murders,rapists,carjackers for reasons other than the threat of being physically/sexually assaulted in prison. As for the case in question, I happen to be against felonizing such actions  in the same way as I am against doing so for other actions that I don't agree with. I think that doing that may cause more harm than good anyways. If she does get her children back, I could imagine that life for the children would be harder with a mother with a felony record, unless Gonzales is rolling in dough, but that's not the impression that I got.


The other issue I want to discuss here is whether even cases of clear out physical abuse as punishment be parents can really be condemned. It is a common belief among many that people are inherently evil and that only fear brought about by swift  punishment can keep them in check. That is why politicians pushing aggressive "law and order" agendas are so popular among the public. If people need to be kept in check by the fear of violence in order to maintain order then what is wrong with using violence on children so that they will internalize such fear at a young age? Why should one care about their suffering if they are really monsters anyhow? After all, what they need is to be kept in line. The comments section of the article are rife with exactly this kind of perspective. Take these comments for an example of what I am talking about.

TJP says: Most children who aren't spanked as kids for minor infractions will turn into little hellions later on - the sorts who end up in juvie and then in prison. 

Andy says: No wonder our country is filled with spoiled, unruly, rude and entitled young people--had they been spanked, they might have learned some important life lessons. Parents are fools who think they can raise children without some discipline. The government needs to lay off of this issue--quite a few members of Congress probably should have been spanked when they were children and they might be more truthful.

 These are just two comments from over a 1000. I assure you that there are dozens, probably hundreds,(they don't appear to all be viewable) just like those two. This line of thinking is also quite widespread and what really bothers me is that some so-called libertarians (e.g. the Hoppeites) actually think that the authoritarian family can be a bulwark against the state. The reality, it appears to me, is that such things serve to reinforce each other. Lastly, if these "smack kids into line" types are right than one thing I don't want to hear anything more about is how children are sweet innocent cherubs that need to be protected from the big bad world. This is because in their view, that is not the case, children are in fact horrible little hellions that  need to be set straight.