Sympathy for the Child

Shining Raichu

Shining Raichu

Expect me like you expect Jesus.
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    Another home run thread title by a member of PC

    So, some points put forth on another thread have got me thinking. Why is any event more dramatic when it involves children?

    If you think about it, there are more ads for children-with-cancer charities than any other kind of cancer charity; when there is a mass murder on the news, the presenters always make a point of pulling at our heartstrings by mentioning how many of the injured/dead are "just children"; when a child dies it seems as though the world stops for just a little bit longer.

    Why do you think this is? Why is it any more tragic when something bad happens to a child than when it happens to an adult? Discuss :)
     
    I think it's less the children, and more the defenseless or less strong. There are also plenty of commercials featuring the elderly, as they're also weaker and more defenseless. As far as things such as cancer goes, it's probably more heartbreaking because, honestly, many adults cause their own cancer. They smoke and get lung cancer, or stay out in the sun way too long and get skin cancer, or eat badly and get various other kinds of cancers. Children very, very rarely do things like that, and if they do, they're not aware of what it causes. So a child getting cancer is purely bad luck.

    There's also the matter of how long a person has lived. Although it's certainly sad when adults die, it's just that much sadder when a child dies because they haven't had any time to really experience life.
     
    On top of what's been said, we all know what it's like to be a child and can see ourselves in their position, but we don't necessarily empathize as much with, say, the elderly, the disabled, or anyone else who's "vulnerable" if it's not something we've personally experienced.
     
    Maybe it's also the fact that children are the future, as people say and people want the human race to carry on - thouuughhh probably not. Or, subconciously when something happens to a child, people do actually feel sympathy partially because they feel like it's happening to their child self, if that makes sense, and due to that, people may be less likely to feel the same way towards older people, or even middle aged because they haven't had such experiences yet, and therefore have a lower chance of putting them in someone else's shoes due to not being able to associate to hem. That also may relate to the defenseless thing, too, because really, it may strike a cord with our inner fears and such.

    edit: ausdfjda scarf you totally took what I said! oh well, i agree with scarf, lol.
     
    Forever said:
    Maybe it's also the fact that children are the future, as people say and people want the human race to carry on - thouuughhh probably not. Or, subconciously when something happens to a child, people do actually feel sympathy partially because they feel like it's happening to their child self, if that makes sense, and due to that, people may be less likely to feel the same way towards older people, or even middle aged because they haven't had such experiences yet, and therefore have a lower chance of putting them in someone else's shoes due to not being able to associate to hem. That also may relate to the defenseless thing, too, because really, it may strike a cord with our inner fears and such.

    edit: ausdfjda scarf you totally took what I said! oh well, i agree with scarf, lol.
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    You see, that was the first point that entered my mind when I read the OP. Children generally have a lot of potential and essentially are the future of the world in which we live in. Though I imagine the defenseless aspect is the main reason for the increase in drama.
     
    Really I think it's just because they're young and cute and innocent and stuff. People get all upset because they know that when bad stuff happens to a child, the child doesn't really understand it but will be heavily affected by it in the future emotionally, far more so than an adult.

    So they don't want these things to happen.

    So they give money to charities or attention to reporters who abuse the innocence of children to get these things.

    I find it irritating tbh since bad stuff can happen to everyone. Adults often have far more to deal with than children too, but that's overlooked completely because kids are cute and stuff.
     
    Sorry, Nica :p

    Thinking more about it there's probably also a self-fulfillment element similar to how some people have kids to give their lives meaning. If they save a child then they can feel like they've done something important with their lives because they have.
     
    Children are naive and need protection from other people because (most of the time) they're incapable of caring for themselves. It's like seeing a wounded kitten, you know it hasn't done anything to deserve that pain and is incapable of helping itself.

    I also think that the majority of people have some form of maternal instinct as well, regardless of whether they have children or plan to have children. I don't particularly like children and I don't plan to have any, but if I saw a lost or hurt child I'd still instinctively feel bad and want to help.
     
    We are predisposed to care for things that look similar to human babies, or have similar properties - the more infantile and "helpless" a creature is, the cuter we tend to find it. That's why people love kittens, but PETA doesn't feature nematodes in their animal cruelty campaigns. Humans aren't as ready to feel bad for nematodes.

    I don't feel that I am speaking of an irrelevant tangent when I say that the subsisting delusion that children are helpless, cute bundles of happiness is just another way to avoid taking children and young people in general seriously. If they need our protection, our help, our lead, then they are decidedly below adults in all faculties. Adults coddle children to quell their curiosity, because they know that children are the only ones honest and fearless enough to break through the systems that adults have set up for children to grow into. Children are no longer learners, they are standardized test-takers.
     
    They haven't lived life and it'll be about to be stripped from them if we don't help. That's the message. Also women, I hate news when women die :(
     
    'coz children are less likely to prevent harm to themselves compared to adults. Plus as a species we're wired to continue our existence which includes keeping the children safe. Media will always do their best to get a reaction out of people. When man blows himself up in a town square, they make sure to point out he's a Muslim, when insane man predict end of the world, make sure to point out he's a Christian etc etc
     
    I just had another thought to add to this.

    You see ads on TV all the time for children in African countries that don't have enough food/clean water, and they ask you to sponsor them. But it occurs to me that there are adults in those African countries who have gone through so much more than any of those children have yet. Why should those adults, whose lives have been unspeakably hard, be allowed to continue to rot because there are children that make cuter and more heartbreaking ads with their big sad eyes?
     
    Last edited:
    Shining Raichu said:
    I just had another thought to add to this.

    You see ads on TV all the time for children in African countries that don't have enough food/clean water, and they ask you to sponsor them. But it occurs to me that there are adults in those African countries who have gone through so much more than any of those children have yet. Why should those adults, whose lives have been unspeakably hard, be allowed to continue to rot because there are children that make cuter and more heartbreaking ads with their big sad eyes?
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    Nearest I can tell, yup. That's how it works. Now, I honestly don't know how such organizations spend their money, but it seems rather stupid to visit an area like that and only provide for the children there, and not the entire community.

    Back to the main topic:
    I think that children in general do have a certain potential that makes them a harder loss than that of other people. There's a notion of innocence, impressionability, and a what-if factor. Adults (while realistically this is far from universal) already have an idea of what they'll do during their life, have solidified their own positions on what happens when they die, and have experienced the things somebody would call important to the experience of life.
     
    I find it quite ironic because, in my experience, many children are horrible little psychopaths who haven't yet fully developed a sense of empathy. Let me tell you, I've heard horror stories.
     
    It's more dramatic because when a six year old kid gets cancer he/she will probably die before they can even mature. My best friend had cancer and he almost died. If a kid gets beat by a guy on a street you feel sorry for them because they aren't strong enough to fight them off.

    Shining Raichu said:
    I just had another thought to add to this.

    You see ads on TV all the time for children in African countries that don't have enough food/clean water, and they ask you to sponsor them. But it occurs to me that there are adults in those African countries who have gone through so much more than any of those children have yet. Why should those adults, whose lives have been unspeakably hard, be allowed to continue to rot because there are children that make cuter and more heartbreaking ads with their big sad eyes?
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    Same as above and btw I know somebody who does that and it says "blablahblahisname's family" They just use kids because you feel more sorry for them

    Now gimme all your food
     
    The ads are appealing to one emotions and kids and woman bring out the sympathetic emotions out of woman more than man do...
    Plus kids have lived less than adults so people want them to enjoy a life as long as they have opposed to an old dying guy who has lived a full 70 + years and has had a family...
    at least that's why I think people feel sympathy for kids...
     
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