The Rant Continued

This is the continuation of a thread at AntiqueSong.

The question is this: What constitutes maturity? At least, that's how I've defined the question. It's not what other people see as the question. But if I'm going to really get into this right-wing thing then listening to what other people think is hardly a good way to start.

There seems to be a wide-spread consensus that maturity is directly connected to age. Once someone turns 18 (insert age of choice here; generally, about 18 months younger than you are seems accepted), they are mature enough to make their own decisions and run their own lives. It has been summed up in the following way by a friend of mine:

I'm making decisions for myself as a grownup, not for a kid or to shut a kid up.

That is to say, the decision only affects me, and I'm a grownup now so I can do what I like. Stop trying to tell me how to live my life. Another friend put it this way:

I got a Happy Meal last week because I was hungry and it had a Hello Kitty toy (which is about 20cm away as I type this). However, as a 21-year-old, I realise that eating Maccas every day is bad for me.

I'm big enough to make the choice (as is [name expunged], one would suppose); a five year old isn't that well equipped. If the parents can't stand up to a 5-year-old and make the decision to be responsible for the health of their child, then yes -- I will happilly call said parents twits.

Need I say how wrong this is? Probably not, but I'm going to, just the same.

What these good people fail to see is that it is the same decision, with the same pros and cons, whether it is them making the decision for themselves or a parent making the decision for a child. The decision is just as bad in either case. The only logic they are left with then, if they wish to claim maturity, is that theirs is a mature decision because they are inflicting damage on themselves instead of on someone else.

Let me get this straight: Maturity is not awarded automatically with age. Just because you have reached a certain age, you are not by default mature. Maturity is evidenced by your actions. A mature person makes good decisions, an immature person makes bad decisions. Whether or not that decision is on behalf of another person or if it involves small children makes not a scrap of difference.