This quote is from the last chapter of Lloyd de Mause’s The Origin of War in Child Abuse. I recommend the book, along with Robin Grille’s Parenting for a Peaceful World, and my own The Witness: Gateway to Self-Development.

“The crucial task of future generations will be to raise loved children who grow up to be peaceful, rather than walking time bombs. In addition, the ability to solve future global economic problems will depend upon improving childrearing around the world. Unfortunately, economists don’t even consider child care as necessary work when measuring Gross Domestic Product, although family care giving, mostly by women, is in fact 70% of GDP. Harriet Fraad has shown that American marriages have actually become more “in trouble” in the past decade; “married women are anxious and depressed and American men feel emasculated, neglected and miserable” as the majority of wives have had to work and neglect child care.”

 Thinking long-term, even though we are in an existential emergency with a short time frame, I think this is a critical aspect of transitioning to a life-affirming culture. We should be putting massively more resources into helping parents raise our children without abuse, along with equipping people with skills to resolve their own emotional issues.

This is directly relevant to conversations in the peace community. It equally relevant to issues of climate change, corporate control of governments, and the compulsion to acquire massive amounts of personal power and wealth. Collectively, we must become the kind of people who can create and enjoy a life-affirming culture.

Going forward, I would like to see public intellectuals, nursing mothers and parents groups talking about this, with a view to inspiring public will to put massively more resources into healthy child rearing and personal development.