TheUKLibertarian

I found this documentary very interesting and would love to hear what the community makes of it. The guy interviews a lot of different experts from different points of view. Apparently it was very controversial when it aired in Norway.

Guys, thanks for the great responses so far. Just to let you k now I edited the OP with the correct link which will help the discussion I'm sure. Here it is again. I'll just wait before jumping back in to see what else people have to say and in case anybody wants to add anything with the full context of how he means forgiveness (or at least what you can get from the clip).

I know Stefan talks a lot about how forgiveness isn't something you can choose and forgiving people who haven't earned it would be bad for your psychological health. But I just watched this short video by the screenwriter Geoff Thompson where he makes a convincing argument that holding on to anger towards people who have wronged you can mess up your brain as you are holding onto anger sometimes for decades that is keeping stress levels up and leading to illnesses and bad health. He talks about bumping into a childhood abuser, telling him that he ruined his early life and then saying he forgives him. I'd be interested to hear thoughts on the video and where you think he gets it wrong if you disagree with his point of view.

At the end of this short Steven Pinker clip he says that on almost any personality trait reserachers measure it turns out that genetics accounts for a % larger than 0% and smaller than 100% that parenting is a small % from 0-10% and that something else (culture, peer group etc) accounts for the rest. He says this holds even with questions like 'how much tv a week do you watch' and 'how many cigarettes do you smoke'. Or to put it another way: the amount of drugs (cigarettes) your child takes is influenced by your parenting almost 0% and perhaps as small as 10% on the high end. Of course I would still aim to parent peacefully and kindly because I think it is a worthy end in and of itself and I don't do it because I want my kids to turn out a specific way as such rather I just want them to have the best childhood experience day to day as possible. However, I am finding it hard to square what pinker is saying here with things Stef talks about in the show. I've heard him say things like "My daughter will simply never have a drug problem" and other confident statements. I want this to be true because it is an empowering belief to hold but videos like this Steven Pinker one 'shake my faith' so to speak. Make me feel that it won't matter that much what I do once my children grow up they will simply do what they'll do and I can't protect them against really bad decisions like smoking or whatever. Just wondering if other parents here have given thought to this topic and if so I'd love to hear them!