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We know dictators. We have lived with them and in some cases, we loved them.
We may have even become them.
It is in our early and perhaps most formative years that we encounter these despots.
They are introduced to us as mother and father and while theirs is, on the surface, a shared power structure the reality is that one of them has more influence and power than the other.
But they operate as a unit, dictating what we eat, where we sleep and what we wear. In exchange they provide shelter and safety. Choices and self-determination, however, are limited.
Ask a toddler if they want to be dressed as a tiny bumble bee or panda bear and paraded around in public and on social media at Halloween and they’ll probably respond with a series of puzzled gurgles. But if you stare into their eyes you’ll see that they long to be something bolder. Something of their own choosing. A T-rex or civil rights attorney maybe.
There are occasions when the authoritarians will create the illusion of freedom by allowing a young child to choose which T-shirt they want to wear to supper, but try leaving the house without socks and pants or singing a happy song under the dinner table and suddenly freedom of choice and expression are just suggestions.
Later in our youth the household flirts with democracy by giving us options and allowing us to vote for the dinner menu or have a say in weekend plans or vacation destinations, but ask why you can’t stay out past curfew or why you can’t skip class because you’re “not feeling it” and you’ll be met with the tyrant’s favorite response:
“Because I said so.”
Even when we turn 18 years old and are endowed with the privileges of adulthood—the right to vote and the option of joining the military—if we live under our parents’ roof we are occasionally reminded; My house, my rules.
It’s not until we strike out on our own that we can start to thoroughly enjoy the freedom to choose how we live.
Hopefully, if you’re 18 years or older you have registered to vote and will participate in the selection of leaders on Election Day next week.
Cast a vote for that two-year-old bumble bee and that teenager who have no say or control in how the world around them operates.
