Question of The Day September 29, 2012 ~ Punishment You Received As A Child ~
What was the worst punishment you received as a child, did it work?
That’s a tough question.
I had many punishments.
The really difficult question is, what was the intention behind the punishment, and did it work?
So many different things.
One punishment was a beating from my mother, for playing doctors and nurses with the girl next door under the house. I think the result of that punishment was my primary dissociation, the initiation of my ego, my original sin. Don’t know if it achieved my mothers objective, and it certainly started something in my life – a self declaration, in language – a bootstrap routine for a new software entity within the milieux already present, and the many that have followed.
Another punishment was a quiet word from a bus driver. I was about 12 and had teased a kid on the bus (Ricky Scowen). As I got off the bus the driver said quietly to me, “I never thought I’d see you do that!” – I never did again. I think that one worked as intended.
The awareness it bought.
I had thought that my torment went unnoticed by the adults, but I got then that they did notice, they did know.
Those quiet words fundamentally transformed my understanding of human society, and my behaviour towards others.