Cub Scouts and Facebook

[Zaphod]

We have a district scouter who makes a habit of getting judge-y with parents/adult volunteers if she thinks they are violating the scout oath/law even in personal matters. 

 

Personally, I am teaching my kids how to recognize bad rules and laws, make informed choices, and be prepared to face consequences (slowly as they are old enough to recognize these difficult concepts, of course). I think that lesson will serve them better than an obey-all-laws-without-question stance. I don't need some ASM or district rep getting all up in my business about Social Media and website TOS's. Plus I guarantee many of us have violated FB's TOS and not even realized it. Participated in that children's book exchange that went around last year? Use a cutesy name instead of your real name? Have more than one account (to keep work and home friends separate perhaps)?  All violations. 

 

While my kids don't have FB accounts they have Google+ accounts and I had to put in a credit card number and add 10 years to their ages to do it. I did it to preserve some blogs they had been keeping for years that Google cut us off from after my kids initially accepted their Google+ invitations. I explained to them the reasons behind the choice and thus began our introduction to the concept of bad rules, bad laws, and civil disobedience. That's some rich American history right there!

 

Ever see someone comment "the law is the law" when it comes to a law they support but then claim that we need to fight oppression/big government/discrimination/[insert issue here] when it comes to laws they don't like? Google "dumb laws" and I am sure you will find out all kinds of ways you are breaking the law and don't even know it. Bad rules/laws need to be questioned and sometimes disobeyed. None of you have to agree with that but Scouters have no business telling or judging parents for making different choices. 

[Stosh]

My scouts get cut a lot of slack when they are unfamiliar or simply don't know the rules.  However, once they have been informed, then it's an issue of person choices as to whether or not they wish to follow them.  I find that certain laws tend to be moral in nature, murder, stealing, lying, and others are simply unsafe, speeding, etc

 

It's okay to suffer the consequences, but once the slippery slop has been addressed it is often difficult to stop or even slow the momentum.  I guess I'm not ready to introduce the boys to any slippery slopes.  A safety expert once put it: for every unsafe action, 300 times on average they will get away with it.  29 times someone will get hurt, and 1 time someone will die.  He then passed around a bowl of candy and said 300 of the pieces are candy, 29 are strong laxatives and one is a poison, help yourself.  It was really strange now no one took any candy.  He emphasized that there really was one piece of poison and that knowing that, why would anyone want to take a chance, but that really doesn't stop people from doing unsafe things......even when they know better. 

 

Add to that any self-justification dynamics and there ya have it..... the slippery slope.

[Beavah]

Yah, @@Stosh, da problem is that slippery slopes go both ways, eh?   There's been an awful lot of wrongdoing by people who were just obeying orders or just followin' da law.   Or to borrow your analogy, there are poison jellybeans that kill people as a result of followin' da law as much as da other way.  Perhaps more, because law and social norms are a force multiplier.  One fellow bein' a crook does a lot less damage than a society embracin' a bad law.

 

To my way of thinkin' da important thing for kids to understand is that Law is a human creation, eh?  It suffers from human foibles and fallibility and sometimes wickedness, just like other human creations.  It can be brilliant, or stupid, or well-intentioned but ineffective.  Da folks writin' it are frequently pushin' personal or corporate agendas as much as da general welfare. 

 

Yeh mention speeding, eh?  That's a nice example.  Maintainin' reasonable speeds can be good for safety, and speed limits can be reasonable.   Da science of da thing says that for maximum safety speed limits should be set at +1.8sd from the mean speed of traffic.   Goin' too slow is just as unsafe as goin' too fast, eh?  If yeh go less than -1.8sd from da mean speed of traffic you're a hazard. Problem is,  lots of times in lots of places, da speed limits are set so that drivin' da speed limit is too slow.   If yeh obey the law, you are puttin' da kids who are riding with you as well as other drivers on da road at greater risk of death or serious injury.  Yeh also aren't bein' particularly courteous, since in some areas drivin' the posted speed will cause big honkin' traffic jams.

 

Why would speed limits be set too low?  Because below-where-they-should-be speed limits generate revenue, eh?  People naturally drive faster than the limit safely, so da government entity rakes in the $ by pickin' off individuals.  Sometimes with unethical corporate help.   In many cases, this places unusual burdens on da poor, who have a much harder time payin' or even gettin' off work to make a court appearance.  It increases tensions with da police that spill over into racial tensions.    Da town of Fergusson at the time of the riots had issued somethin' like 30,000 traffic violation arrest warrants... for a town with a population of somethin' like 22,000.   Fergusson and da surroundin' towns were essentially engaged in legal racketeering.  Not just there, eh?  I've seen one projection where the advent of autonomous vehicles will bankrupt a huge number of towns in this country because they are so dependent on traffic fine revenue.

 

Of course, up here in da winter time, drivin' the speed limit can be too fast, eh?     So it's also wrong to say that just because I'm followin' the law what I'm doin' is right or OK.  Yeh have to look at circumstances and outcomes.

 

I think good citizens should understand all that, eh?   I don't think our lads should follow anything blindly.  We should be takin' their blinders off!  They need to learn to be Mentally Awake and exercise sound judgment.  Principles, morals, da will of God, these they should follow.  Everything else should be evaluated, whether it's the law, or the rules of a big group, or the social pressures of a smaller group they're a part of.  We don't want automatons, we want citizens.

 

Of course I just got back from a canoe trip on a hot day where I confess I blew any number of lads away with my SooperBeavahSoaker.

 

Beavah

Edited June 19, 2016 by Beavah