'Mild Paedophilia Never Did Me Any Harm': Atheist Scientist Richard Dawkins Declares

[LeftishBrit]

137. This sort of attitude is not uncommon in older men who went to English 'public' schools

Most commonly it is used about corporal punishment - 'We got the cane every week, and it never did us any harm!'; but it can refer to any aspect of the hardships experienced: 'we were bullied'; 'we were away from our parents for months at a time from the age of 8'; 'we didn't have any fancy food'; 'we were cold in the winter'; 'we didn't get all this pampering that children get nowadays' - 'AND IT NEVER DID US ANY HARM'!

It is, I suppose, the common younger-generation-are-spoilt attitude - 'I walked ten miles to school in the snow every day, uphill in both directions!'; exaggerated by the fact that the boys' parents were in this case paying lots of money for the privilege of making their sons tough enough to rule the Empire (this is basically how it originated, though even by Dawkins' time there wasn't much of an Empire left); that this was seen as an important part of social status; and that the children were living much of the time in an enclosed environment, separated from their parents, from an early age.

It's a pity that Dawkins can't apply any of the scepticism to boarding-school practices that he does to religion; but I don't think he's actually recommending paedophilia!