sick of being pushed around?

>From the Politician-Free Zone - www.angry.at/politicians



Hypocrites in High Places

Child abuse is one of the main causes of crime. There are things the government 
could do to stop child abuse, but they aren't interested in doing any of them. 
This article tries to explain why not.

Most prisoners are survivors of child abuse. For example in Australia the 
figure is 80 percent. A lot of people think they weren't abused even though 
they were. For example someone whose parents always told them they were useless 
might say they weren't abused, because they weren't physically hurt. Or someone 
whose parents hit them all the time might say they weren't abused because there 
wasn't any incest. Even people who were sexually abused might not think they 
were abused - perhaps because their parents lied to them and said it was their 
own fault.

Anyone whose parents regularly hit them was abused - even if the parents said 
it was because they deserved it, or because 'kids need discipline', or any 
other excuse. Anyone whose parents regularly told them they were useless or 
ugly or stupid was abused - even if the parents were 'only joking' or 'under a 
lot of pressure'. Anyone whose parents had any kind of sexual contact with them 
was abused - whatever excuse they came up with. And anyone who was frightened 
of their parents for any reason was abused. Some of this might seem obvious, 
but it needs to be said.

The connection between child abuse and crime is pretty obvious. Take someone 
who's been hit, or raped, or made to feel unloved or frightened or worthless. 
Someone who was totally helpless, at the mercy of the people who were doing it 
to them. Someone who was forced to cover up what was happening. And someone who 
was probably conned into thinking it was their own fault. Someone who was then 
put in a society where there's no one to help them, where no one really wants 
to know about child abuse, where people are expected to just 'grow up', 'be a 
man', 'stop whining'...someone weighed down with a lifetime of pain and anger 
who's expected to bottle it up and keep quiet about it and not be hurt by it. 
No wonder people strike out! No wonder there's violent crime.

The government always talks about how they want to reduce crime. So, since 
child abuse is a major cause of crime, what are they doing about it? The short 
answer is zero. For example the Kid's Help Line is a phone number kids in 
Australia can call to get help with their problems. It's so short of money that 
they can only answer half the calls they get.

It's hard, and getting harder, for people under 18 to get money from the 
government. Of course this means that it's harder for people to survive without 
their parents. And so the government forces many victims of child abuse to stay 
with their abusers.

Most child abuse victims don't get any help with coping with what happened to 
them. Often school counselors are totally useless. Psychiatrists who see people 
in the public health system often don't do anything but give them 
anti-depressants. Rich people are the only ones who can afford to get real 
help. They can afford to pay therapists enough that they'll actually listen to 
them. They can take a holiday when things get too much. They're the only ones 
that can get the help that everyone has a right to. The rest of us have nothing 
but blotting out the pain with alcohol and drugs, and taking it out on other 
people.

This is one reason why rich people aren't going to end up in jail: they can get 
help with their problems. And, when people strike out, rich people are almost 
never the victims. How much street crime is in rich areas? Almost none. So it 
isn't surprising that the people in power do nothing to stop child abuse. 
They'd have to care about the rest of us. And so people who should be helped 
end up thrown in jail. 

Even if the government won't stop child abuse, that doesn't explain what causes 
it in the first place. One obvious answer is the way the family unit is set up. 
Parents are legally allowed to 'discipline' their children - children are the 
only group who can legally be assaulted. In fact parents are told they need to 
do this - that their children will be 'spoiled' if they aren't kept in line. 
Children aren't allowed any freedom from their parents' control. There's no way 
for a child to have any independence from an abusive parent.

None of this is natural - it doesn't have to be this way. In a lot of cultures 
children are raised a lot more by the whole community, and have a lot more 
freedom. Children and parents are supposed to have a relationship based on love 
- but the family is set up as if children were prisoners and parents were their 
jailers. Parents can take out their frustrations on children because the 
children can't do anything back. They can't tell anyone, they can't respond, 
they can't even get away. Parents aren't even told they shouldn't do it. 
Instead they're told they need to discipline, control, and punish to be good 
parents. With the family set up this way, it's no wonder there's so much abuse.

If you asked a politician or a priest why thy thought the family was so good 
for society, they'd probably say something like this - it teaches you respect, 
that sometimes you have to do what you're told, that people in authority 
probably know what's best for you, and so on. These are the values people are 
supposed to have in society, because most people live their lives being told 
what to do. This is pretty obvious in jail. But it's also true at school, at 
work, or on the dole. A small number of people have power over everyone else. 
And naturally they'd like to keep their power. So it's in their interests that 
people are trained from birth to do what they're told. 

In other words, that the family stays as it is, even though so many people have 
to suffer the horrible pain of child abuse. Even though there's so much of the 
crime they say they want to stop. Even though they deal with victims by putting 
them in jail.

Not only do the people in power not care about child abuse; they benefit from 
the main thing that causes it. Politicians can talk about stopping violent 
crime all they want - they can't and won't do anything about the real causes. 
We have to stop it in spite of them, by getting rid of the society that causes 
it.


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