Projecting a guilt which cannot be faced outwards onto others is a well documented psychological condition. Such is the case in regard to society’s current obsession with paedophilia. Paedophilia is a dreadful scourge, for children who are unfortunate enough to undergo it can have their future lives psychologically wrecked. I know this because I was one. But fortunately only a tiny fraction of children are the victims of paedophiles. Compare this with other evils from which children suffer in our time. There can be no doubt that bringing up children today is not easy, and one can only admire and deeply sympathize with parents who struggle bravely to do it. My own failures to care for children in my charge scald my heart even now like red hot pincers. Too late. Those terrible words. Nevertheless, our vilification of paedophiles, while failing to attend sufficiently to a multitude of other problems, does not help. Millions of children are obese and some will die early as a consequence. All too often they do not roam about in nature and kick footballs in streets, as children should, but spend hours sitting in front of computer screens. The Government is endlessly putting pressure on schools to ‘drive up standards’. Those unfortunate enough to be born at the bottom of the social heap know that their chances of getting a job are slim. They foresee themselves as almost inevitably leading worthless and fruitless lives, and, not surprisingly, behave worthlessly and fruitlessly. To top it all our failure to address climate change will, if most of the scientists are right, condemn most of the children in the world to a terrible future on a devastated earth. We can’t put all of these things right. But we can do far more than we are doing, especially about climate. Thanks a bunch Mum and Dad.
