Something I've never really understood...

[vulgarweed]

the concept of "innocence" and why it's valued so much.



Usually when you see it thrown around online, it's got to do with sex (as if fetuses haven't been caught on ultrasound wanking in the womb). But it goes deeper than that - I just got into it with someone on a message board about a 14-year-old upset by studying history of genocide.

Urk...I read Anne Frank's diary at 11--after that I started reading every book and encyclopedia entry that I could find about the Holocaust, including lots of crying and nightmares and staring at death camp pictures, trying to understand what happened to her, for she'd become an "imaginary friend" to me, as characters in beloved books always do.

That was almost three years after the months I'd spent staring at the TIME magazine cover with all the pictures of the bloated Jonestown bodies on it, stealing it from my parents and trying to wrap my brain around the concept of people killing themselves...just because I knew my mom's best friend had killed herself 2 years before and she was still grieving - I'd overheard my parents talking about it at night, and they'd given me a dumbed-down "child-friendly" version of why Sally was gone, but just because I was little doesn't mean I was dumb, and I was well aware my mom was still crying about it sometimes.



I don't get it. Why is "innocence" considered worthwhile? Isn't it just a sentimentalized version of ignorance? If I hadn't been aware of intense human suffering in childhood, would I have any sense of social conscience or empathy now? It ALL starts young, or it never happens at all, right? (Believe me, I've met people who never empathized with victims or knew poverty or tragedy as kids. I don't envy them and I wouldn't trust them as far as I could flick them with two fingers.)

Comments

[acusa-dora.livejournal.com]

I don't know how I feel about this. Watergate was exceedingly hard for me (I was in high school when the shit hit the fan) because I believed in the system. I knew the government had problems (I remember the summer of 1968 very well. I was 11), but I didn't know how bad it could be. I think most kids realize that adults are not superhuman when they're about five or six. They can see through you pretty well. I'm still a cornball old person, though, and I hate to see people become jaded and lose hope. The loss of innocence to me means becoming someone who doesn't have anything/anyone to believe in or care about. That is really damaging. The rest of it--knowing how cruel people can be and also the flip side--how generous and good people can be just prepares you for life.

As for the kid who didn't know about the Holocaust--what stupid parents don't teach their kids about history? We took our son to the Anne Frank house when he was seven. We thought that would be the way to introduce the whole topic to him without overwhelming him with that information. We were in Amsterdam as part of our vacation that year, so it was the right place/right time thing. He studied the Holocaust in 8th grade and then we dragged him to the museum in DC.

[wandlimb.livejournal.com]

The loss of innocence to me means becoming someone who doesn't have anything/anyone to believe in or care about.

I'm a cornball old person, too, and about your age, and agree with you about how not believing in anything is the soul killer. As "Boomers," we're part of a pretty idealistic generation. Maybe the definition of "loss of innocence" shifts slightly depending on what generation you're a part of.