day no. 16,861: political parenting

“The paternal state not only feeds its children, but nurtures, educates, comforts, and disciplines them, providing all they need for their security. This appears to be a mildly insulting way to treat adults, but it is really a great crime because it transforms the state from being a gift of God, given to protect us against violence, into an idol. It supplies us with all blessings, and we look to it for all our needs. Once we sink to that level, as Lewis says, there is no point in telling state officials to mind their own business. Our whole lives are their business. The paternalism of the state is that of the bad parent who wants his children dependent on him forever. That is an evil impulse. The good parent prepares his children for independence, trains them to make responsible decisions, knows that he harms them by not helping them to break loose. The paternal state thrives on dependency. When the dependents free themselves, it loses power. It is, therefore, parasitic on the very persons whom it turns into parasites. Thus, the state and its dependents march symbiotically to destruction. When the provision of paternal security replaces the provision of justice as the function of the state, the state stops providing justice. Those who are concerned about the chaos into which the criminal justice system has fallen should consider what the state’s function has become. Because the state can only be a bad imitation of a father, as a dancing bear act is of a ballerina, the protection of this Leviathan of a father turns out to be a bear hug.” — Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction

Godly patriarchy produces future kings by training today's sons. Toxic patriarchy protects its own interests by refusing to raise tomorrow's warriors for fear they may rise up to usurp them. 

Godly matriarchy (oikodespotein) nurtures and raises boys in the home before turning them loose to be men on their own. Toxic matriarchy never cuts the cord and keeps the boy dependent even after he can shave. It smothers a son into incompetence by refusing to let him suffer the consequences of independent action or responsibility.

When the State wants to play the parent, it ends up taking on the worst characteristics of fathers and mothers. The State was not charged by God to parent which explains why it is so bad at it… and why it is so bad at the justice it is supposed it be doing.