Natural Consequences And Artificial Consequences

When I was 12 or 13, a Russian immigrant lady advised my father to use corporal punishment on me. She said that I was a smart boy and that I would get the point.

What she did not understand was that I was in fact too smart a boy to fall for such a transparent manipulation. The distinction that needs to be made is between actions' natural consequences and their artificial consequences. In the first case we see a logical outgrowth of the action itself. In the second case is a consequence assigned to the action by others. If a parent chooses to be violent to their child, that is not the natural consequence of the child's actions. It is an artificial consequence assigned to the child's actions by the parents.

We see this around us all the time – this confusion between natural consequences and artificial consequences. We see this especially in the matter of love. When love is attacked from many different sides – by toxic feminists, by predatory psychologists, by unethical divorce lawyers – love will be at a disadvantage. Most love relationships will fail. At which point the people responsible for this state of affairs will howl victory and say that they have been right about love all along.

For a long time we saw this with women as well. They were treated as slaves. If you are a slave and you have intelligence or other strengthening qualities, then that will make you dangerous to people who want to see you and yours remaining a slave. So for a long time the women of intellect were seen as danger to society. Most of them were persecuted, in order to keep up the lie that women are stupid and should be slaves. And the ones who would not had to learn brilliant manipulation, which of course was used to claim that women were evil.

Now there are many situations in which artificial consequences are assigned rightfully. If you rob someone or commit murder, then you should go to jail. However let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that this is a natural consequence of such behavior. It is not. It is an artificial consequence assigned to it – in this case rightfully – by society.

So it is important to make a distinction between natural consequences and artificial consequences. If you choose to beat your child, that is not the natural consequence of your child's behavior. That is an artificial consequence that you have assigned to the child's deeds. As for myself, I hold myself to a higher standard of conduct as a parent. And I hope that other parents take my advice and allow the child to learn the actions' natural consequences and navigate life intelligently as a result.