In the modern age, children exist in a truly grim state of affairs. Their lives and choices are routinely subject to oppressive control, rather than loving guidance. Their interests are often narrowed from the time they can speak, either into activities they have no interest in but serve the self-aggrandizement of selfish parents, or into banal and idiotic television programs designed to indoctrinate children into the "values" of consumerism and conformity, teaching them to value useless products and trendy clothing over love and friendship.

When one thinks of the framework of society that supports children - their healthy development in an atmosphere of love, caring, and respect - one can easily think of it as an immune system, which facilites the total development of children. There are three main components of that immune system - good parenting, good teaching, and good outside influences, of which pedophiles are a major part.

But in the modern age, that framework has been attacked by a virus - a cultural virus entailing selfishness, hatred, mediocrity, conformity, and consumeris, among many other factors. This attack is insidious - highly similar to the HIV virus which can lie in wait for years, slowly destroying the defenses of the body, until it it far too late to check the process.

First, the virus attacks parenting. Today, children are a burden - they are considered "annoying", "loud", "scary", even "evil". People extol the "joys" of childlessness. It is no longer "fashionable" to be a parent. This inevitably leads to a slow decline in the effort placed into parenting. Many parents are incapable of performing the balancing act of guidance and freedom that the job entails - therefore, you either have controlling parents who restrict their children's every activity, or deadbeat parents who let their children sit on their ass and watch TV all day.

The virus also infests teaching - as the trend to standardize all aspects of education robs the classroom of any creativity, vision, or passion whatsoever, being utterly bound to the dictates of the testmakers. Furthermore, bureaucratization makes teachers have to focus on endless reams of paperwork and boring bureaucratic tasks - the costs of which are passed on to students. How may a teacher, exhausted from having to jump through bureaucratic hoops be an effective teacher and mentor to a child? How can that teacher, being forced to teach cookie-cutter material, teach to the strengths and weaknesses of his or her class? Thus, education, lacking any real substance, is forced to concede to inane ritual and meaningless popularity contests, because there is simply so little to offer the children in the classroom!

Now, it comes to us - the outside forces, the lovers of children. At this point, both parenting and teaching are degraded. So what happens next? The paedophiles are not degraded. But they are made to appear so! From being simply people who were "good with kids", they have been transmuted into predators, molesters, people worthy of the worst condemnation. So the very force that could be used to compensate for the decline of the other two entities is actually attacked by them! We are not allowed to show more than the most token affections, and we cannot open express love for them - otherwise we face suspicion.

Now - with the immune system destroyed, the symptoms thereof are readily apparent. Whether sexual banality in the form of consumerism, the ever narrowing scope of their choices, or the fact that their status in society is worsening with each passing day, we see the truly insidious effects of the social forces afflicting society. And with that in mind, it is our responsibility to right the ship, to restore the immune system to health, and even better health than before, so that children can be brought up in the best environment possible.