Our Children Are Seeing Clowns. No Surpise there!

Have you seen the clowns that have become such a popular news item? If you are an adult, probably not. The vast majority of these sightings seem to be by young people. So, if you haven't seen the clowns, your kids may have. The reason is simple.

The clown sightings have grown exponentially more frequent as we reach the apex of the U.S. presidential campaign. That's no coincidence. A campaign of unprecedented vitriol, rhetoric and conflict. Young people undoubtedly see this as something vaguely familiar gone horribly wrong. A disturbing conflict.What is more conflicting than a menacing clown? The clown sightings are our younger generations emotional manifestation of our current political climate. We joke all the time about our politicians being clowns. Well, now it looks like that is exactly what has happened.

Fear of clowns in general and menacing, homicidal clowns are nothing new. The ability for children's imaginations to run rampant, equally so.  But how these emotional and imaginative wheels turn is, by no small measure, influenced by the world around them. Nothing permeates our world today than the U.S. election. Talk of a particularly hated candidate or foible talk place at home, at school, while shopping and everywhere else. Not all those discussions are cogent and dispassionate. That it is somehow influencing on our children is inescapable.

A less than well informed young person might see one or more of our political candidates as ugly, scary, incomprehensible and an ultimately threatening caricature of a real person. Just like a clown. Would it be so surprising if their imaginations take that image and run with it? Who could blame them. Too bad it's our fault.