To be honest, in these discussions about Jedi recruitment I'm always nonplussed that people usually talk of parents' giving their consent, but not about _the child's_ consent. It's the child, whose life will be affected the most, but gets no choice either way. It doesn't seem people realize that?
Then I thought about it some more and I had the epiphany that society is used to children having no true choice in what faith they follow. Children are always "indoctrinated" by their caretakers and there's no way to avoid it. Even I was! My parents were atheist and religion was a non issue in our houseld (or my homecountry, for that matter), so I am atheist as well without ever thinking too hard about it.
Not that all that many people want their children to make a choice of their own. Christians have got christening infants, jews and muslims have got male circumcision, other religions have probably got similar rituals. I believe there are some denominations that wait until the person in question has mind of their own, but most don't. (To be fair once again, that can be true of atheists as well. I have recently learnt that when I was 5 or so, my paternal grandma tried to teach me a prayer and my mom was pissed that she was filling my head with nonsense.)
The thing about Jedi is that due to their non-attachment teachings, they can't really have children of their own. So they've got to be forcibly convertitive and find some other Force sensitive children, to whom they can pass down their way of life.
What makes it even more interesting, the government evidently supports them in that (until Palpatine appears on the scene, that is). Here comes the broader issue of who knows what's best for the child - family or state? I believe it's the family, but in Europe in the last few years we've had somewhat of an upheavel with the death of Alfie Evans and also with Bavernet. Oh man, I hope none of those accusations are true. *sigh*
To end this on a somewhat lighter note, are you familiar with metal songs by Dooku's actor? They're total cheese, but kind of great? One of them is called The Bloody Verdict of Verden and it's sung by Lee as Charlemagne about his slaughter of Saxon heathens for their "worship of devils". Which is sort of relevant to our topic, but mostly I can actually imagine Dooku singing it both as a Jedi or a Sith lol.
Re: Recruiting
Then I thought about it some more and I had the epiphany that society is used to children having no true choice in what faith they follow. Children are always "indoctrinated" by their caretakers and there's no way to avoid it. Even I was! My parents were atheist and religion was a non issue in our houseld (or my homecountry, for that matter), so I am atheist as well without ever thinking too hard about it.
Not that all that many people want their children to make a choice of their own. Christians have got christening infants, jews and muslims have got male circumcision, other religions have probably got similar rituals. I believe there are some denominations that wait until the person in question has mind of their own, but most don't. (To be fair once again, that can be true of atheists as well. I have recently learnt that when I was 5 or so, my paternal grandma tried to teach me a prayer and my mom was pissed that she was filling my head with nonsense.)
The thing about Jedi is that due to their non-attachment teachings, they can't really have children of their own. So they've got to be forcibly convertitive and find some other Force sensitive children, to whom they can pass down their way of life.
What makes it even more interesting, the government evidently supports them in that (until Palpatine appears on the scene, that is). Here comes the broader issue of who knows what's best for the child - family or state? I believe it's the family, but in Europe in the last few years we've had somewhat of an upheavel with the death of Alfie Evans and also with Bavernet. Oh man, I hope none of those accusations are true. *sigh*
To end this on a somewhat lighter note, are you familiar with metal songs by Dooku's actor? They're total cheese, but kind of great? One of them is called The Bloody Verdict of Verden and it's sung by Lee as Charlemagne about his slaughter of Saxon heathens for their "worship of devils". Which is sort of relevant to our topic, but mostly I can actually imagine Dooku singing it both as a Jedi or a Sith lol.