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“Language is the basis of culture and consciousness, so, once humans had language, they became capable of using culture to override biology (using memes to drive humanity rather than genes; using idea mutations rather than gene mutations) and thus freed humanity from animalism and instinct. The new dawn of consciousness, culture and knowledge had arrived.”

Quote by Rob Armstrong

Book:Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers
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Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers

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Rob Armstrong

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“Consciousness isn’t part of a child’s innate makeup. It has to be added. A child has to acquire consciousness, through education, something which others do to the child. Human culture operates on human infants to furnish them with a new operating system: consciousness. No other animal has a culture. No other animal can change their instinctual operating system. Children are the perfect laboratory for consciousness studies since they start off unconscious, slowly develop consciousness – for several years existing in an extraordinary liminal zone poised between the unconscious and conscious worlds – and, finally, become fully conscious. Via children, we can literally track how consciousness changes humans as we monitor the changing properties and abilities of children as their degree of consciousness increases.”

ChildrenCultureLanguageEducationConsciousnessUnconsciousBicameralism
Book:Children See Dead People: Children's Spooky Powers
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“The [asylum-seeking] children are embodying a sociocultural phenomenon. Their story has been written across nations, in a combination that has made them unique. It has been impacted by poor social circumstances, poor nutrition, epigenetics, abusers, authority figures, politicians, parents, doctors and the media.”

ChildrenPoliticalCircumstancesAsylum SeekersStereotyped Prejudices
Book:The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness
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“Part of not wanting children has always been the certainty that I didn’t have the energy for it, and so I had to make a choice, the choice between children and writing. The first time it occurred to me that I wouldn’t have both, I was still years away from being biologically capable of reproduction. History offers some examples of people who’ve done a good job with children and writing, I know that, but I wasn’t one of those people. I’ve always known my limitations. I lacked the units of energy, and the energy I had, I wanted to spend on my work. To have a child and neglect her in favor of a novel would be cruel, but to simply skip the child in favor of a novel was to avoid harm altogether.”

ChildrenMotherhoodParenthood
Book:These Precious Days: Essays
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“In preparing litigation on behalf of the children we were representing, it was clear that these shocking and senseless crimes couldn't be evaluated honestly without understanding the lives these children had been forced to endure. And in banning the death penalty for juveniles, the Supreme Court had paid great attention to the emerging body of medical research about adolescent development and brain science and its relevance to juvenile crime and culpability. Contemporary neurological, psychological, and sociological evidence has established that children are impaired by immature judgment, an underdeveloped capacity for self-regulation and responsibility, vulnerability to negative influences and outside pressures, and a lack of control over their own impulses and their environment.”

ChildrenScienceCrimeResearchDeath PenaltyAdolescentsImpairment
Book:Just Mercy
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“A wide assortment of children's rights advocates, lawyers, and mental health experts were watching closely when we asked the Court to declare life-without-parole sentences imposed on children unconstitutional. ....I told the Court that the United States is the only country in the world that imposes life imprisonment without parole sentences on children. I explained that condemning children violates international law, which bans these sentences for children. We showed the Court that these sentences are disproportionately imposed on children of color. We argued that the phenomenon of life sentences imposed on children is largely a result of harsh punishments that were created for career adult criminals and were were never intended for children--which made the imposition of such a sentence on juveniles like Terrance Graham and Joe Sullivan unusual. I also told the Court that to say to any child of thirteen that he is fit only to die in prison is cruel.”

ChildrenPrisonSentencesSupreme CourtImprisonmentCourtsAdolescentsSentencingLife SentencesLife Without Parole
Book:Just Mercy
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