The Cookie Jar Lesson

Remember what you felt like when, as a kid, you got caught with your 'hand in the cookie jar'?

Maybe not exactly a cookie jar, but your parents caught you in a blatant lie?

​Every kid has that happen at least a few times, because as kids we didn't really understand how smart our parents were, and we didn't think we would get caught.

Kids are not mature enough to temper their impulses. They let their emotions get the better part of good judgement. As parents, it is our job to make them aware of the consequences of lying or cheating, to make them pay a price and to admit their mistakes. Failing at lying, and learning remorse, is the first step to understanding the nobility of being honest.

At age 8,  I was found to have a vast assortment of polished collector stones in my closet.  My mom was astonished when she confronted me with the stash and I told her I had found them in a vacant lot. It didn't take her long to figure out they came from a hobby shop a couple of blocks away and she knew I could not have afforded to buy them. After I cried and screamed that she didn't trust me, doubling down on my lie, off we went to speak to the shop owner.

I was busted. I was ashamed. I had to apologize to the hobby shop owner and return all of the stones I had shoplifted from his store. I had to confess to my dad. I had to serve a long period of room detention. I am 66 now and I remember that day like it happened yesterday.

It qualifies as a life lesson, and it left a lasting impression on me.

I wanted my mom to love me, so I gave up trying to fool her. She had an innate ability to read my body language, so lying to her was hopeless anyway. Over the years I have matured and learned that being a liar and a stealer was not in my best interests. Did I ever lie again? Of course, but not without great consideration and serious rationalization. Now I limit my lies to what my mom called 'little white lies', the kind we tell out of consideration or convenience, like when your wife asks you, "Do I look fat?"

Everyday we see many young people in the news, protesting and complaining about how unfair everything is, and then demanding the rest of us make them feel better. Crying and rioting over perceived police brutality, racism, xenophobia, job bias, and hundreds of social injustices, they act like very young children in a shopping cart, kicking and screaming, waving their arms and whaling that they want what they want, while they contribute little or nothing to the nation's output.

The awful truth is that we have a deep social illness among liberals and their over-indulged voting aged children who cannot accept that they lost an election, that they didn't get their way, and that their goofy ideas about how the country should be run have been summarily rejected. I am sorry, but yes it is somewhat indigenous to liberals, because they have been the purveyors of the all positive, non-judgemental, everyone-is-equal and can't-we-just-be-friends child rearing philosophy that got popular during the bacchanalian 60's. And now the results of that abdication of parenting skills is on full display.

Unfortunately, for the past several decades, we have been teaching our kids that they are all 'the best', that there is little difference between right and wrong, that all answers are 'good' answers and that it is cruel to make anyone feel ashamed for their actions, even when they lie or cheat. We have protected them from the pain of losing in competition, from being held accountable for losing their temper, for acting selfish or for taking shortcuts on assignments. If you know a teacher, they will tell you it is virtually impossible to exercise any discipline without fear of repercussions from the administration and the parents.

We call these young people (many of whom are now in their early 40's) 'snowflakes', because according to the liberal parenting code, everyone of them is unique and equally beautiful, no matter how reckless they act. Having never been forced to develop coping skills, when confronted with challenges, they melt into indifference and self absorption. Instead of stopping for some introspection, they quickly look for excuses, fix blame, and project their anger and disillusionment at anyone who points out how childish and immature they are acting.

They suffer from arrested development, and when eventually confronted with life changing challenges they act frightened.. After the election, their complicit college professors brought out play dough and teddy bears to soothe their anxieties, and offered grief counseling over the election of someone they have demonized because he fits the template of a 'rich, white racist, male misogynist, and purveyor of western Imperialist culture' that our major colleges use to describe Republicans.

Look at the incessant whaling and moaning of the liberal women on the daytime talk show The View, for example. Whoopi Goldberg is making a mockery of her role as a television analyst and social commentator. How long can the ABC News Department support her exhibition of hysterical name calling and angry ad hominem charges of bigotry about the duly elected new President of the United States?  Her cultural ignorance and blatant racism is disgusting and unbecoming of a major network program!

But sadly, she does reflect the mentality of a significant portion of our population, and that is what we all ought to be concerned about: Far too many Americans never learned the Cookie Jar Lesson.

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