Just a point

Images from http://www.snyderstreasures.net/

Well, who will have thought that the man whose hands drew these paintings will later be responsible for the deaths of 11 million people, 9 million of them jews?

Reading the biographies of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin had certainly set me thinking. One similarity which I find hard to ignore will be the role of the parents in the early lives of these two notorious personalities. Let's look at Hitler first. Hitler's dad was a custom officer, while Hitler wanted to be a painter in his youth. His dad, on learning his ambitions, thought him hopeless and forced him to follow the same career path as him, a custom officer. Of course Hitler,in the spirit of his youth, rebelled. It did not help that he was rejected by the arts school twice for being "not good enough". More drama followed and there you end up with one of the most evil world leader in history.Now Stalin. Young Soso(his pet name) was enrolled by his mother into a seminary who had high hopes of seeing her son one day as a priest.But of course, strict discipline and boring religious studies only worked for certain people and Soso decided to turn to reading more interesting stuff about socialism instead, rebelling in every way. Again the drama and soon you get this guy ruling the whole of Russia.

The similarity I'm seeing here will be the fact that both parents had tried to force their sons into becoming a person THEY EXPECTED THEM to be, not allowing them to develop into people THEY THEMSELVES WANT to be. These parents expect their children to be pieces of clay, to be moulded into whatever form they want finally to be placed in the conformistic society. It's kinda sad isnt it? Hitler's dad and Stalin's mum might have thought that they were doing the right thing, all for the future well-being of their child, dismissing their childs' ambitions and hopes as a childish phase and comforting themselves that they will soon grew out of that. But have they ever consider that they are doing more harm than good? That stamping out the fiery dreams of their children might cause them to advance into adulthood with that innate sense of hatred? History might have been very different if Hitler was encouraged by his dad to pursue his career of becoming an artist or architect, and Stalin to expose himself to new opportunities before finally finding his niche and settling down.

Of course, all parents want the best for their child, not wanting their child to suffer in the harsh reality we live in, society. They want their child to be rich,successful, have a stable income etc. This is perfectly understandable. But the trouble comes when they decide to exert their parental authority into forcing their child into that tiny pinhole labelled "Guranteed Wealth And Success", striping away "Love,Hope And Happiness" in the process. So the child grew up to be a sad solemn adult with all the riches he can ask for yet never knowing what he's missing.

I'm saying all these because this is what I am seeing all around me. Parents acting exactly like those of Hitler's and Stalin's. Take a good example of my good friend. (Shall not name her to avoid embarrassment, but you know who you are anyway!) Coming from a single child family, her parents have always harbour wishes of her becoming financially stable in her adult life, yet with little difficulty and minimum exertion. So they both come up with this brilliant idea of trying to matchmake their child with some rich kid so that she can be a tai tai, benefiting herself and her parents.(Yeah, it's cool to be a mother in law of a rich guy) My friend obviously does not share her parents' ambition and finds it very irritating that her parents are such materialistic people who do not understand her definition of happiness. (She is currently attached but her poor boyfriend was often scorned by her stupid parents)

How horrible. Even in my own family I'm experiencing such troubles, though in a different manner. My parents generally acknowledge my decision, but I can always sense their disappointment whenever I make decisions, for example, choosing the arts over sciences, abandoning maths. I dislike it especially when my mum will tell my brother to never ever end up like me, choosing the arts as he will have to support his family later and studying arts "is nothing." Well, wanna know something? I think science people are made to become dumb robots.Ok, hold your weapons, you fellows in the science, for I'm not insulting you. Contrary to popular beliefs, it is not easy to study a humanity subject as compared to a science one. Subjects like literature and history are very subjective and you will actually be force to think of every possiblities. This is unlike studying a science subject, for example, physics. Every thing that you are doing has probably been tried and tested for the millionth time before you conduct that experiment or do that sum. All you have to do is to remember the formula, extract it from your mind then paste it on paper to score. And what have you learnt in the process? Anything useful about life and its complexities? Think about it.

Haha...I will probably be killed after this entry is published. XD

Hmmm, so what makes a good parent? In my opinion, I think a good parent should be one who will allow his child to develop in any way he wants. Of course, he will have to reel his child back in if he realised that his child is going the wrong lane (eg, smoke), but otherwise, let his child explore and learn in whatever way he wants. A good parent will be the one who listens to the child when he finally makes a decision, and be the first to comfort the child if he failed, offer sensible and non bias advice when consulted, in short, be the one who supports and guides. Most important, respect your child and his ability.

Heheh. I dont know about you, but this is something I will work towards to if I'm ever a parent. =P