"A boy of ten or eleven has a few great sexual experiences—he thinks they’re great—but then he has the bad luck to get caught and get in trouble. They try to persuade him by punishment and other explanations that some different behavior is much better, but he knows by the evidence of his senses that nothing could be better. … The basic trouble here is that they do not really believe he has had the sexual experience. That objective factor is inconvenient for them; therefore it cannot exist. … The sensible course would be to accept it as a valuable part of further growth. But if this were done, they fear that the approved little hero would be a rotten apple to his peers, who now would suddenly all become precocious, abnormal, artificially stimulated, and prone to delinquency. The sexual plight of these children is officially not mentioned. The revolutionary attack on hypocrisy by Ibsen, Freud, Ellis, Dreiser, did not succeed this far. … The question here is not whether the sexuality should be discouraged or encouraged. That is an important issue, but far more important is that it is hard to grow up when existing facts are treated as though they do not exist. For then there is no dialog, it is impossible to be taken seriously, to be understood, to make a bridge between oneself and society."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Activists from the United StatesAnarchists from the United StatesAcademics from the United StatesAnti-war activistsCritics from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
pp. 38-39.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Goodman
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman (September 9, 1911 – August 2, 1972) was an American writer, poet, public intellectual. He is mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd and as an activist on the pacifist Left.
53 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Paul Goodman →
Related Quotes
"Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of…"
"The chessboard was reflected in her eyes. Eager to beat her, first I looked on her eyes. I made a Spanish move, an an…"
"There is a dilemma in any High Standard of Living in a profit economy. I am referring to the embarrassing truth that …"
"This I did with all my will and apparently indefatigably (but I will one day drop with weariness)—I invented a differ…"
"Life gets you coming and going. If you sterilize or police the spontaneity of children, it will return as stupidity, …"
"It is not hard to envisage a society in the near future in which self-reliant and autonomous people who know nothing …"
"Naturally, grown-up citizens are concerned about the beatniks and delinquents. … The question is why the grownups do …"
"Nothing could be more stupid than for the communications commission to give to people who handle the means of broadca…"
"We live increasingly in a system in which little direct attention is paid to the object, the function, the program, t…"
"Few great men could pass personnel."