Infantile adults

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a man of straight words. While thinking about childhood wonderment, I had at the back of my mind, something he said last year. More surprisingly, I found it! Speaking at a conference in East London he said, "Childhood is most positively valued and fostered when we resist infantilism. When adults stop being infants, children can be children." Further, "If we go on producing grown up infants we can hardly wonder why different sorts of violence and dysfunction exist in our society."

In a society that devotes newspaper comment to "Big Brother" (not George Orwell's), he has a point.

Reported in the Guardian on-line, April 11th 2005.