Barrie Smith: Nation has spared the rod and spoiled the child, leading to increased criminal offending

Stuff co.nz 15 August 2018
Family First Comment: “…if discipline is ingrained into you at a young age it is with you for life as you learn to understand right from wrong. So as our nation moved into the 1970s and beyond we had these “do gooders” who continually sniped until finally our politicians started to listen and introduce laws around what was acceptable and what was not, such as smacking being outlawed. This is when our nanny state grew even bigger and now we have perhaps two to three generations who were never brought up knowing right from wrong or no means no. Why are our jails full to overflowing? Why do we read every day of idiots robbing the local dairy or liquor store? Why do we read about these druggies who claim to the judge that they didn’t know what they were doing? In my opinion in almost every case these offenders were brought up in families where discipline did not exist. Now as we move into the 21st century, we as a nation have at huge cost had little option but become what I call something near a “police state”.”
Yep.

Almost daily we read in the news the horrors of crime, everything from petty thefts to assaults, murder to drug abuse. This is an unpalatable subject for many but I ask, what the hell is going on?

This is not the New Zealand I, or all the other readers of my vintage, was brought up in.

Why oh why have we had to become something near a “police state”, even to the extent our new Government is proposing to extend police numbers by some 1800 recruits.

This is an absolute indictment on our society. In other words in my opinion as we have moved through the latter 20th century and into the 21st century we have let ourselves down badly by becoming a “nanny state” as we moved away from knowing what discipline was or should be.

There is a saying which describes this well: “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. I also have a personal view that if your child does not know what the word no means by the time they are around seven years old you could well have lost them to the other nastier world.

I am not saying I support beating your child. But it is around the subject of discipline where each family needs to have its own way of dealing with it.

So for me, and I guess so many other readers, looking back to when we were growing up, discipline did feature but I’m happy to say I’m a better person for it. I never heard any CMT recruits say a bad word about the Army or the discipline that went with it. But in my opinion if discipline is ingrained into you at a young age it is with you for life as you learn to understand right from wrong.

So as our nation moved into the 1970s and beyond we had these “do gooders” who continually sniped until finally our politicians started to listen and introduce laws around what was acceptable and what was not, such as smacking being outlawed.

This is when our nanny state grew even bigger and now we have perhaps two to three generations who were never brought up knowing right from wrong or no means no.

Why are our jails full to overflowing? Why do we read every day of idiots robbing the local dairy or liquor store? Why do we read about these druggies who claim to the judge that they didn’t know what they were doing?

In my opinion in almost every case these offenders were brought up in families where discipline did not exist.

Now as we move into the 21st century, we as a nation have at huge cost had little option but become what I call something near a “police state”.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/106285268/Barrie-Smith-Nation-has-spared-to-rod-and-spoiled-the-child-leading-to-increased-criminal-offending

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