‘Child-witches’ of Nigeria seek refuge

One of the core platforms of the Christian mythology is that we are born evil, tainted, prone to sin. This is not through any fault of our own, but we are still responsible for being “sinful.”

This is, however, mad projection on the part of the adult. If a child crying in the middle of the night, is driving a nail into its skull somehow a better moral choice? Can a child truly ever do something worse than the inevitable responses our parents give? Physical assault, isolation, neglect, shaming… all these are not tools of correction, but tools of abuse.

While child abuse most certainly begins in the home, it does not remain locked up in a secret room. If physical or emotional abuse is not addressed, it will find its expression in other areas of life.

For those who do not face the abuse they endured, they will become vectors of abuse themselves. If they endured sexual abuse or humiliation, they will inflict it upon their children. If they were hit as children, they will hit their own. If they were belittled or ignored, they will do the same to their kids.

But it does not stop with one’s children. The failure to address one’s own suffering can also cause one to seek abuse at the hands of others. Hence, one goes through life with the belief that an abstract “greater power” is necessary for existence. For a particular majority, this is called “God.” For another majority that does not necessarily intersect, but largely does so, this is called “Government.” These two entities are merely the adult mappings of the category known as Parents.

When one is a child, one’s parents are much larger, much more powerful, and much more knowledgeable than the child, in many ways. However, as a child’s mind develops, he begins to ask questions of his parents that are not met with honesty, but are met with hostility. The child interprets this hostility as a failing on his part, as some innate wrongness that must be corrected… if this illusion is never addressed, this child will grow up and turn to Gods and Governments to be corrected.

The biggest problem here is that despite the fact that Gods and Governments do not exist, they are represented by individuals who themselves are operating under illusions. There is nothing that separates a priest or a politician from a parishioner or a plebian biologically or morally, yet the former participate in the greater illusions in order to survive at the expense of the latter.

If one continues to think that Gods and Governments are so different, consider the following parallel: in the Roman Catholic church, many priests take advantage of their power to molest young boys. This has always been something of an open secret, but it blew up in the media only recently. What was seen as scandalous by many was the fact that the Roman Catholic church did not fire these priests, but transferred them and protected them from criminal prosecution!

In state-run educational systems–especially in some (if not most or all) areas of the United States–it is very difficult to fire an underperforming or even a dangerous teacher. Those that are underperforming may very well be shuffled around, while those that are dangerous may be paid to sit in a room. They are being protected from the consequences of their actions and, in the case of the latter, from criminal prosecution!

In any other scenario, an individual that is a danger to children that is placed in charge of children would be removed from that position and charged with criminal misconduct! In an ideal world, whatever organization pursuing justice would realize this individual was deeply disturbed and would offer treatment and counseling as it would be incredibly likely that this person was abused as a child in some way.

If we start working to get people to wake up, to stop abusing their children, then it’s possible that these illusions will begin to disappear, because they will not be needed. In that time, we (or our descendants) will be able to live as entirely voluntary beings, coerced by no one because no coercion is needed in order to accomplish the various things that need to be done.