The molded, conditioned, disciplined, repressed child--the un-
free child, whose name is Legion, lives in every corner of the
world. He lives in our town just across the street. He sits at a
dull desk in a dull school; and later, he sits at a duller desk in
an office or on a factory bench. He is docile, prone to obey au-
thority, fearful of criticism, and almost fanatical in his desire to
be normal, conventional, and correct. He accepts what he has
been taught almost without question; and he hands down all his
complexes and fears and frustrations to his children.

Psychologists have contended that most of the psychic damage
to a child is done in the first five years of life. It is possibly nearer
the truth to say that in the first five months, or in the first five
weeks or, perhaps even in the first five minutes, damage can be
done to a child that will last a lifetime.

Unfreedom begins with birth. Nay, it begins long before
birth. If a repressed woman with a rigid body bears a child, who
can say what effect the maternal rigidity has on the newborn
baby?

It may be no exaggeration to say that all children in our civili-
zation are born in a life-disapproving atmosphere. The time-
table feeding advocates are basically anti-pleasure. They want
the child to be disciplined in feeding because non-timetable
feeding suggests orgastic pleasure at the breast. The nutriment
argument is usually a rationalization; the deep motive is to
mold the child into a disciplined creature who will put duty be-
fore pleasure.

Let us consider the life of an average grammar school boy,
John Smith. His parents go to church now and then, but never-

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