The Spear recently heard mention of a long-forgotten item
which, in the opacity of his past, he vaguely recollects was of great
importance. The humble ‘Permission Slip’
as it were; that bottom-of-the-page, perforated slice of parental abdication,
hadn’t found reason to impress the audacity of its existence on The Spear’s cognisant
mind since the days of pre-tertiary education.
The very fact that there once existed a time when The Spear
needed the written permission of a guardian to participate in such activities
as excursions, sports and just about anything extending beyond the realm of lead-pencil-based education, now seems rather bizarre to him. Now he is answerable only to himself and the
Law. Somewhere along the line The Spear
evidently became his own person, free from the tyranny of the Permission Slip. That somewhere, his living in Australia, was his
eighteenth birthday.
From memory, there was no grand sensation of transformation which
accompanied his shedding of ‘minor’ status upon reaching the Age of
Majority. The Spear believes this
feeling was not present for himself, and likely most others, because the
majority of freshly minted adults do not want to immediately abandon the security
and protections which come with a degree of parental providence, such as free
rent and groceries. Only gradually once
legal adulthood is reached do people, unless in dire domestic circumstances,
seek to expose themselves to the full brunt of the indifferent world at large.
And why is this? The
Spear imagines it would be a different story, were not the children in this
modern era confined to their scholastic cloisters virtually right up until
their adulthood, secluded and sheltered in an artificial environment, free from
the various forms of predators at large in the adult world. Not only is the schooling system free from
most predatory types, but it also fails to instruct its pupils about those
which are awaiting them once they are to free from the system. Life experience, ‘street-smarts’, if you
will, are left for over-worked, time-poor parents to impart to their children when
they are not busy trying to earn the money to pay for their offspring’s very education.
So the majority of new adults are simply unprepared for
adulthood, experientially. Physiologically,
this may also be the case, although The Spear would argue that some people, no
matter how old and hairy they become, never reach the maturity levels one would
suppose a ‘responsible’ adult to posses, and who in truth, if their own
well-being was put foremost, should never be left to their own devices. An adult one may be in body, but not in mind. But such potential measures could impinge on
the liberty of all individuals, and thus it is probably best to let each person
ruin their own life in their own way.
Would it perhaps be better if there was a more gradual
assumption of the freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood, so that there was
more scope for preparation? Currently
there are some gradations, but only based on age and nothing else. If you take a trip to your local salad bar,
you will likely be charged as an adult if you are over 13. You can consent to certain medical procedures
in your teenage years. You can have sex
when you’re 16. You can join the army
when you’re 17. You can drink when you’re
21 (in the USA).
The Spear has to assume that while these automatic triggers do
offer freedoms, they are more-so a necessity to stop people from voluntarily
declining the responsibilities of adulthood.
There comes a time when everyone must be able to be held accountable for
their own actions as their own person (unless declared mentally unfit?),
otherwise, like those deviant minors who know they are untouchable, the actions
of some would be without legal consequence.
So fare thee well, Permission Slips. Never again shall The Spear be able to distance
himself from his actions using the auspices of childhood immaturity and a
perforated piece of paper. But then
again he wouldn’t want to, if it meant giving up the freedoms.
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