Ch 11. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding

Danger and Mastery

The Role of Risk in Development

• Skateboarders performed dangerous tricks—balancing skill and risk.
• They weren’t trying to be safe; they were trying to become competent.
• Protective measures would have ruined the challenge—competence is what truly ensures safety, not avoidance of risk.
• Mastering danger is a fundamental part of human development.

Overprotection Stifles Growth

• Skateboarding spots were blocked with “skatestoppers”—ugly steel brackets installed to prevent use.
• Similarly, Toronto playgrounds were abruptly removed due to insurance concerns, leaving children with no proper places to play.
• When environments are made too safe, children either stop playing or find riskier alternatives.
• People optimize, not minimize, risk—a balance between safety and challenge is essential for growth.

The Consequences of Overregulation

• Overprotected people become unprepared for the real world, where sudden danger is inevitable.
• Aesthetically, overregulated spaces become uninviting, filled with anti-human design elements (e.g., prison-like barriers).
• Such measures reflect distrust and resentment 恩怨 toward the public rather than a genuine desire to improve safety.

Success and Resentment

• Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche emphasized the dark side of human motivation:
  • Freud: Social propriety has a hidden, opposite impulse.
  • Jung: Every virtue is accompanied by its shadow.
  • Nietzsche: Many self-proclaimed moralists are motivated by resentment, not virtue.
• George Orwell observed that some socialists didn’t love the poor; they simply hated the rich.
• True morality isn’t about public declarations of virtue—it’s about personal responsibility.

Hidden Motivations Behind Public Policy

• Jung’s rule: If you don’t understand someone’s actions, look at the consequences and infer their motives.
• If skatestoppers lead to unhappy youth and urban ugliness, was that actually the goal?
• Rules that suppress skill and risk-taking often arise from resentment and control, not genuine concern.

The Spread of Anti-Human Ideology

• A professor at a TEDx talk promoted anti-human rhetoric 修辭, encouraging students to limit their reproduction.
• Similar ideologies exist in radical environmentalism, which views humans as a plague rather than an adaptive, problem-solving species.
• Chris and the TEDx professor shared the same mindset—deep resentment toward human existence itself.

The Dangers of Anti-Human Thinking

• Eric Harris (Columbine shooter) saw humanity as a failure, justifying mass murder as an act of moral purification.
• If humans are considered a plague, then eradicating them becomes a moral act—a dangerous ideology.
• Many who claim to fight prejudice often harbor resentment toward humanity itself.

The Struggles of Modern Boys and Men

• Boys are falling behind in education—partly due to biological traits:
  • More disobedient, competitive, and independent.
  • Less agreeable and less prone to anxiety than girls.
  • Drawn toward things (STEM), while girls prefer people-oriented fields.
• Educational institutions increasingly favor female success—boys feel alienated and left behind.

The Decline of Marriage and Dating

• Women prefer to marry equal or higher-status men, but:
  • Fewer men are attending university.
  • Middle-class jobs are disappearing, making stable relationships harder.
  • Single motherhood is on the rise, despite its well-documented challenges.
• The feminist movement promoted career ambition for women, but many still prioritize love and family.
• Many high-achieving women leave demanding careers to raise families—something not widely acknowledged.

The Misconception of the “Patriarchy”

• Culture is oppressive, but not solely for women—both sexes struggled against poverty, disease, and hardship.
• Major advancements that benefited women (e.g., anesthesia, birth control, modern sanitary products) were pioneered by men—yet these men are often ignored or vilified.
• Feminist academic institutions often promote activism over education, pushing a narrative of male oppression.

Postmodernism and the Long Arm of Marx

Critical Theory and Its Marxist Roots

• Max Horkheimer (1930s):

  • Developed Critical Theory, a Marxist approach aimed at social transformation, not just understanding.
  • Argued that Western values like freedom and free markets were masks for oppression.
  • Sought to critique and dismantle Western civilization.

• Jacques Derrida (1970s):

  • Leader of postmodernism, which he described as a radicalized form of Marxism.
  • Replaced economic oppression with power structures—arguing that all hierarchies exist to exclude and oppress.
  • Derrida’s core idea: “Il n’y a pas de hors-texte” (“There is nothing outside the text”) → Everything is interpretation, not objective reality.
  • Claimed even language itself is a tool of oppression.

Marxism in Practice: From Utopia to Mass Murder

• Marxist theory applied in Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, etc., led to:

  • Tens of millions of deaths through mass purges, forced collectivization, and famine.
  • The destruction of private property, markets, and individual freedoms.
  • Societies based on lies, fear, and betrayal.

• Example: Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (1970s):

  • Khieu Samphan, a Sorbonne-educated Marxist, believed only agriculture produced real value.
  • The regime eliminated cities, banned money, and forced people into labor camps.
  • Result: A quarter of the population (1.7 million people) died in the Killing Fields.

• USSR: Dekulakization (1930s):

  • Wealthy farmers (“kulaks”) were labeled parasites and enemies of the people.
  • Millions were executed or exiled to Siberia, leading to mass starvation (Holodomor).
  • Ukraine alone lost 6 million people to famine—Soviet posters warned against “eating your own children”.

Why Western Intellectuals Ignored Marxist Atrocities

• During WWII, the USSR was an ally against Hitler, distracting from its crimes.

• Some intellectuals excused the brutality as necessary for revolution.

• Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher):

  • Defended communism for decades, only denouncing the USSR in 1968 after Prague Spring.
  • Even dismissed Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag revelations as dangerous.

• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago (1973)

  • Exposed the Soviet Union’s reliance on tyranny and slave labor.
  • Proved that oppression was not an accident but an inherent feature of communism.
  • Destroyed communism’s moral credibility in the West—even within the USSR.

Postmodernism: Marxism Rebranded

• Communists needed a new justification after the Soviet collapse.

• Derrida and postmodernists replaced “economic class struggle” with “power struggle.”

• Hierarchies were no longer about wealth but about power and exclusion:

  • Men oppress women → Gender is a social construct.
  • Science is a tool of oppression → Objective truth doesn’t exist.
  • Competence is a false concept → Success is just a power game.

• Key Postmodernist Claims:

  • All hierarchies exist to oppress.
  • All knowledge is biased.
  • All categories (e.g., male/female) are arbitrary and oppressive.
  • Western civilization is a system of power, not progress.

• Major Contradictions:

  • Postmodernists claim gender is a social construct, yet argue people can be “born in the wrong body.”
  • They deny objective truth but insist their theories are true.
  • They attack Western civilization while benefiting from it.

The Dangers of Postmodern Ideology

• Destroys objectivity: If everything is just interpretation, facts don’t matter.
• Eliminates meritocracy: Competence and intelligence become “oppressive” concepts.
• Encourages authoritarianism: If only power exists, then using force becomes justifiable.
• Justifies social engineering: If gender differences exist, society must be forcibly changed.

Postmodernism in Universities

• Radical academic disciplines (e.g., gender studies) receive public funding but openly attack Western values.

• No scientific evidence supports key claims of radical feminism or social justice theory:

  • Western culture is not “pathologically patriarchal.”
  • Men historically supported and protected women, not just oppressed them.
  • Not all hierarchies are about power—some are based on competence.

• Real predictors of success:

  • IQ (intelligence) and conscientiousness (hard work, discipline)—not privilege or oppression.
  • Even in well-functioning societies, some inequalities are inevitable.

The Myth of Equal Outcomes

• Postmodernists demand equality of outcome, but measuring outcomes is impossible:

  • Should all racial, gender, and ability groups have identical incomes?
  • How do we define work of “equal value” across different jobs and industries?
  • Should every ethnic subgroup be adjusted for wage gaps?

• Example: US Ethnic Wage Differences

  • “American Indian” is a broad category—some tribes earn much more than others.
  • Should wages be adjusted for all 500+ tribes?
  • Where does the redistribution stop?

Social Engineering and Its Risks

• Extreme postmodernism leads to forced social changes:
  • Scandinavian gender studies show that even with full equality, men still choose engineering and women still choose nursing.
  • Radicals demand even more “retraining” to fix “bias.”
  • Similar thinking led to Mao’s Cultural Revolution, where millions died for “reeducation.”

Conclusion: The Importance of Competence and Individuality

• Western culture is not perfect, but it has produced immense progress.
• Postmodernism undermines objective reality, leading to chaos.
• Marxist ideas in disguise still promote class warfare—now as identity politics.
• Competence and personal responsibility, not forced equality, lead to a functioning society.