George Scarlett, Extremist!
AP via ABCNews: Cafe Stirs Debate Over Kids' Behavior
Too often, though, our cultural emphasis on freedom and individual rights gets taken to the extreme, becoming "a kind of selfish entitlement that undermines our ability to function as a civil community," says George Scarlett, a professor of child development at Tufts University in Boston.
Where is this culture? Can you point me in its general direction?
I don't see it in the United States...in fact, too often is it the case where freedom and individual rights are violated, repressed, denied, and infringed.
Do you think Professor Scarlett is the victim of bad editing and reporting? From the article, it seems he thinks collectivistic altruism ultimately trumps individualistic egoism. Such a moral code wouldn't surprise me. Digging around, I find the following: his mentorship/sponsorship of a "Part-Time Lecturer: Rights of Children to Social Services Spring 2006" position at Tufts University. I have little doubt the "right to social services" isn't fundamentally questioned in that class.
"The rights of any one individual whether he or she be a parent, child or stranger do not negate the rights of others."Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
It says here that Professor Scarlett's expertise is in "Children's play, Religious and spiritual development, Approaches to managing children's problem behavior, Organized youth sports." So why was he quoted and published as an authority on ethics and rights?
Certainly that last bit about rights-negation sounds good. But isn't such a dogmatic, hard-liner, extreme position too hard on poor Civil Community?