Should I take my eight-year-old son to a demonstration outside an im-migration detention centre? Detention is something I am passionately opposed to but, so far, I have bottled it because I baulk at the explanation that I would have to give him. ‘Why are people locked up in there – are they dangerous?’ ‘No, they haven’t committed any crime or hurt anyone.’ ‘Why are they in there?’ ‘They are there because our society doesn’t want them to be here.’ ‘How can they get out?’ ‘I don’t know, some do and others are there for years.’
I think it could be a frightening experience. At the same time, I hope that as an adult he’ll be a defender of principles of equality and inclusion, tolerance and diversity, and open borders. To what extent should we protect our children from the dark realities of the world we live in and for how long?
Your question reminded me of a screening I went to of Buster Keaton’s The General at the British Film Institute. Sat in front of me was a young boy, probably around eight years old, who’d been taken to the (Saturday afternoon!) screening by his clearly very cultured and serious parents. He fidgeted and complained throughout; they told him to ‘sssh’ and appreciate the sublime comedy on-screen. Poor boy! He would have had much more fun watching a terrible Netflix cartoon on an iPad or running outside on the Southbank rather than watching a black-and-white silent film made 100 years before he was born. His parents will probably find that their attempts to ‘civilize’ him will backfire and I predict he’ll be a Philistine as an adult.
