Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "Colin Powell: Kids need structure | TED" video.

  1. Yes, I agree totally with your assessment. Unfortunately, these things seems to be applied on a continuous pendulum, and right now we are waaaay too far over onto the nurture without structure side. It's all touchy feely and kid's rights, without worrying about society's rights to have socially well adapted kids in it, who do not have a massive sense of entitlement.
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  2. I thought that myself. Hopefully we can look forwards to hearing a talk by Charles Manson sometime soon.
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  3. Agree with your point about Japan, and even to an extent about kids' freedom to express themselves, but there is no doubt that kids thrive under reasonable boundaries and in a structured environment, just as adults do.
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  4. I might add, that it's precisely this kind of military intellectual deconstruction that makes troops unable to think for themselves when they see horrific abuses of power by their peers and leaders in war zones. They're chosen from the low end of the intellectual spectrum, then they're emotionally broken by the training process, then blamed when they react inhumanely under daily threats against their lives.
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  5. But they DO need structure. But you're right about Powell.
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  6. There are always casualties in war. If deposing Saddam was a just goal, then HE is the one that should be blamed, not the people who stood up against a tyrant. Kids were dying there long before the US turned up.
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  7. Total nonsense. Powell starts by talking about kids' foolish desire to play soldier, then he goes on to illustrate the way that the army consciously deconstructs the recruits' sense of individuality and free thought, replacing it with a dependent, Stockholm syndrome relationship with the drill sargent where the recruits are grateful not to be victimised. Then he wrongly conflates this with the emotional bonding of a mother and her dependent baby. I couldn't watch any more - I felt too nauseous.
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