These days you can't spank anyone; I mean in a non-sexual and disciplinary way. Government, misguided by even more misguided social scientists have made sure of that. Our social scientists are largely educated overseas and when they returned, they came back bearing gifts much like the ones Greeks took to the Trojans. Instead of being beware of such gifts, the government simply accepted them and as a result we can't spank anyone, least of all erring children. As for spanking in the "other" way, the government diktats had no impact on their use anyway - spankers spanked and spankees loved it.
In the U.K.up until the '60s schools and parents could spank children for various kinds of infractions and look what it did to that nation: Lloyd George, Churchill, Montgomery of El Alamein, numerous pilots who saved the English bacon in the battle of Britain, Frank Whittle who invented the jet engine, Paul Dirac and Arthur Eddington both of Physics fame, Turing of cryptography and computers, Hammond, Hutton, Larwood and Jardine of cricket, Crick and Watson of DNA fame, Issigonis who designed the Mini (car, not the skirt), the Beatles even, were all products of an era of sound spanking. And look at how they all turned out. Then some misguided social scientist came along and recommended becoming friends with children instead of raising them. See what happened then. We haven't had a single great Briton in a country that calls itself the Great Britain. An air force that cannot save England from Scotland, an auto industry that doesn't exist any more, a middling cricket team and unmemorable cricketers, a nation where nothing is invented, a country which cannot even make safe mortgage loans. Britain has been reduced to a nation where form matters more than function (look at WAGS and footballers), and whose PM carouses with the rich and the famous and leaves his 6 year old daughter behind in a pub. The greatest single failing in all of this is the absence of spanking.
When we were young, any infraction brought on swift and certain disciplinary action: a stinging slap across the cheeks. Swift, unpremeditated, instinctive reaction to a perceived crossing of some boundary. The progressive mums might have given a hug later on, after allowing sufficient time for contemplation and a sulk. When matters got a bit more serious and landed in the domain of the father, the punishment was much more painful and usually administered with a fine cane whose "swish" through the air was sufficient to induce a wince and evasive action. The last mentioned usually doubled the quantum of punishment. Poor grades in quizzes tests and exams, insufficient preparation for the above, spending too much time at play and too little with books, poor condition of school books and workbooks, giving the glad eye to some girl if you were a boy, receiving the glad eye if you were a girl (you were supposed to be invisible and not get noticed, especially by boys which kind of negates being pretty and attractive which every parent wanted their girls to be), items of clothing which even remotely suggested immodesty or fashion etc etc were all grounds for receiving some strict old fashioned disciplining.
Telling lies and being economical with the truth may be much preferred political attributes lately, but back in the days when gay meant being happy and pansy was a flower, they didn't cut any ice with parents or teachers and brought on swift and punitive action. And look at how we all turned out: god fearing, parent fearing (which are the same thing really), teacher-respecting, law abiding upright citizens who stop at red lights even in the middle of the night when there is no traffic, never cut the median yellow line, pay their taxes and who look after their grandchildren in old age.
Corporal punishment, as it was fashionably called in the 70's when discussions were on to abolish it, differed in the means of execution but had a single objective: to inflict maximum pain in the swiftest possible manner with the longest lasting effect. It was claimed that it formed character - variation of "what didn't kill you made you better", "iron is forged in fire", etc. line of thinking. And raising kids was all about forming character those days. Literature suggests that in English schools, there may have been an element of sexual nature in administering such punishment, especially while caning the rear ends of errant boys. Boarding school stories of such nature are a legion. But then the English have always had a fascination for human male rear ends and what The Economist once referred to as "a fondness for buggery". In India that was not the case at all, perhaps because the Indian parents and teachers were aware that gluteus maximus, being a substantial muscle, was capable of enduring the pain of a cane or a palm. The preferred Indian locations were the palm (and if you caught the cane) the back of the palm, funny bone in the elbow, cheeks (usually with the palm) and calves (try taking full force of a fine manilla cane there). There was no hanky panky of a sexual nature in punishments in Indian schools or homes.
Look at what happens now: parents don't raise their children; they merely finance them. If they so much as lift their fingers to admonish the errant ones, there are at least half a dozen laws under which they can be arrested. The teachers have been taught, wrongly, that they must not resort to corporal punishments. No wonder we don't make jet engines, design minis, win Nobel prizes, discover the secrets of the universe or even produce good cricketers. We drive like maniacs as if there is no other road user, take every conceivable short-cut in every endeavour, and cannot even think of a single consensus candidate to ornament the Presidential Palace. We can't read, we cant count and we certainly can't integrate. Differentiate we do well but only based on religion, skin colour, caste, tribe, sub-sect and real and imagined historical neglect. Our dams leak, our exam question papers leak, our nuclear stations leak, high public offices leak, and two-thirds of the population does not have roof over their heads, leaky or otherwise.
We don't work and blame lack of results on social divisions. We expect everything to be given to us sugar coated. We are not empowered but we all feel entitled to everything. We want to escape the coils of the accident of our birth but demand benefits based on that birth. We don't want to feel the pain of making the effort.
I say enough of this soft-parenting. Bring back corporal punishment. Spank everyone who does not do what he supposed to.
The image of Manmohan bending over and Sonia administering a cane to his rear end is strangely troubling as its is exciting, cartoon controversy or not.
In the U.K.up until the '60s schools and parents could spank children for various kinds of infractions and look what it did to that nation: Lloyd George, Churchill, Montgomery of El Alamein, numerous pilots who saved the English bacon in the battle of Britain, Frank Whittle who invented the jet engine, Paul Dirac and Arthur Eddington both of Physics fame, Turing of cryptography and computers, Hammond, Hutton, Larwood and Jardine of cricket, Crick and Watson of DNA fame, Issigonis who designed the Mini (car, not the skirt), the Beatles even, were all products of an era of sound spanking. And look at how they all turned out. Then some misguided social scientist came along and recommended becoming friends with children instead of raising them. See what happened then. We haven't had a single great Briton in a country that calls itself the Great Britain. An air force that cannot save England from Scotland, an auto industry that doesn't exist any more, a middling cricket team and unmemorable cricketers, a nation where nothing is invented, a country which cannot even make safe mortgage loans. Britain has been reduced to a nation where form matters more than function (look at WAGS and footballers), and whose PM carouses with the rich and the famous and leaves his 6 year old daughter behind in a pub. The greatest single failing in all of this is the absence of spanking.
When we were young, any infraction brought on swift and certain disciplinary action: a stinging slap across the cheeks. Swift, unpremeditated, instinctive reaction to a perceived crossing of some boundary. The progressive mums might have given a hug later on, after allowing sufficient time for contemplation and a sulk. When matters got a bit more serious and landed in the domain of the father, the punishment was much more painful and usually administered with a fine cane whose "swish" through the air was sufficient to induce a wince and evasive action. The last mentioned usually doubled the quantum of punishment. Poor grades in quizzes tests and exams, insufficient preparation for the above, spending too much time at play and too little with books, poor condition of school books and workbooks, giving the glad eye to some girl if you were a boy, receiving the glad eye if you were a girl (you were supposed to be invisible and not get noticed, especially by boys which kind of negates being pretty and attractive which every parent wanted their girls to be), items of clothing which even remotely suggested immodesty or fashion etc etc were all grounds for receiving some strict old fashioned disciplining.
Telling lies and being economical with the truth may be much preferred political attributes lately, but back in the days when gay meant being happy and pansy was a flower, they didn't cut any ice with parents or teachers and brought on swift and punitive action. And look at how we all turned out: god fearing, parent fearing (which are the same thing really), teacher-respecting, law abiding upright citizens who stop at red lights even in the middle of the night when there is no traffic, never cut the median yellow line, pay their taxes and who look after their grandchildren in old age.
Corporal punishment, as it was fashionably called in the 70's when discussions were on to abolish it, differed in the means of execution but had a single objective: to inflict maximum pain in the swiftest possible manner with the longest lasting effect. It was claimed that it formed character - variation of "what didn't kill you made you better", "iron is forged in fire", etc. line of thinking. And raising kids was all about forming character those days. Literature suggests that in English schools, there may have been an element of sexual nature in administering such punishment, especially while caning the rear ends of errant boys. Boarding school stories of such nature are a legion. But then the English have always had a fascination for human male rear ends and what The Economist once referred to as "a fondness for buggery". In India that was not the case at all, perhaps because the Indian parents and teachers were aware that gluteus maximus, being a substantial muscle, was capable of enduring the pain of a cane or a palm. The preferred Indian locations were the palm (and if you caught the cane) the back of the palm, funny bone in the elbow, cheeks (usually with the palm) and calves (try taking full force of a fine manilla cane there). There was no hanky panky of a sexual nature in punishments in Indian schools or homes.
Look at what happens now: parents don't raise their children; they merely finance them. If they so much as lift their fingers to admonish the errant ones, there are at least half a dozen laws under which they can be arrested. The teachers have been taught, wrongly, that they must not resort to corporal punishments. No wonder we don't make jet engines, design minis, win Nobel prizes, discover the secrets of the universe or even produce good cricketers. We drive like maniacs as if there is no other road user, take every conceivable short-cut in every endeavour, and cannot even think of a single consensus candidate to ornament the Presidential Palace. We can't read, we cant count and we certainly can't integrate. Differentiate we do well but only based on religion, skin colour, caste, tribe, sub-sect and real and imagined historical neglect. Our dams leak, our exam question papers leak, our nuclear stations leak, high public offices leak, and two-thirds of the population does not have roof over their heads, leaky or otherwise.
We don't work and blame lack of results on social divisions. We expect everything to be given to us sugar coated. We are not empowered but we all feel entitled to everything. We want to escape the coils of the accident of our birth but demand benefits based on that birth. We don't want to feel the pain of making the effort.
I say enough of this soft-parenting. Bring back corporal punishment. Spank everyone who does not do what he supposed to.
The image of Manmohan bending over and Sonia administering a cane to his rear end is strangely troubling as its is exciting, cartoon controversy or not.
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