The Daily Universe (my college newspaper) recently published a front-page article discussing the relevancy of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). As an Eagle Scout myself, the article got me thinking about my own involvement with BSA, as well as some of the things that I’ve subsequently come to see as objectionable about the organization.
One of the most common criticisms leveled at the Boy Scouts is that the organization is outdated. This seems painfully obvious to me. Of course ideas like honesty or hard work that scouting tries to instill may always be relevant. However, scouting’s method for teaching these ideas is simply absurd. Things like merit badges and the recitation of pledges, oaths, and slogans are completely foreign to most people’s experience. I’d also argue that they’re useless. One of the people the Daily Universe quoted made a good point: why do we need an orienteering merit badge if we all have access to a GPS? Taking this argument one step further, even if our iPhones are missing or out of battery power, are we really going to pull out a compass and map? For that matter, how many times will we find ourselves lost in a place that has no people, signs, or even roads? I don’t think I’ve ever been in that situation, and I can’t imagine why I would be.
Other aspects of scouting seem even more ridiculous. For example, the uniforms. I genuinely have no idea why BSA has stuck to what looks like something little boys would use to play army in the 19th century, unless it’s to humiliate the scouts. Seriously, what’s with the neckerchief? And (short) shorts with tall green and red socks? Is this really the best they can do?
Of course, while there are a bunch of silly outdated aspects of scouting, the real problem is much more insidious. At best, BSA sees a very narrow, homogenous version of the United States. That vision doesn’t include, for example, atheists, agnostics, or homosexuals. At worst, however, BSA combines this flagrant discrimination with hyper-conservative jingoism that uses faux-military structures to indoctrinate young children. Pledges and oaths aren’t just outdated in a pedagogical sense, but actually require children to submit unthinkingly to powers they likely don’t understand. When these activities are combined with religion (as is the case in the LDS church, among others), the results amount to coerced spirituality.
While I’m obviously no fan of the Boy Scouts of America, I am also in the paradoxical position of having to admit that sometimes I also had a lot of fun as a scout. Going to scout camps I had the chance to canoe, shoot rifles and bows and arrows, go climbing, and visit a number of places I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. When I was a teenager my parents sent me to the National Boy Scout Jamboree, which was fun and educational (during that trip we also visited Washington D.C. and other nearby cities). Our weekly activities were also memorable. For example, one time we went to the hospital, where our leader let us touch a human brain.
The question, then, is if the many negative aspects are enough to outweigh the positive opportunities that the program affords. This is a hard question to answer. If I could go back I would not participate in what I see as an offensive institution. Yet, I’d also be loath to surrender some of the experiences I had. I also think that some of the activites we did actually accomplished good things. My Eagle Scout project, for example, probably did benefit someone (even if I did it for all the wrong reasons). I certainly wouldn’t want to undo that.
The answer, I think, is that BSA is obsolete, but some of the activities it provides aren’t. Consequently, those organizations that are currently affiliated with BSA should sever that affiliation and fill the resulting void with other youth programs. In the LDS church participation in scouting is more or less obligatory, as I assume it is in other organizations. All that energy that LDS members put into scouting could very easily be diverted into more productive and relevant activities. If this doesn’t happen organizations like churches run the risk of having their policies and beliefs defined by outside parties. For example, I’d hate to think that I’m required to believe in the BSA’s particular brand of intolerance, yet if I am all but forced to participate (as LDS young men are) that’s essentially what happens.
Ultimately, I don’t think that scouting provides any opportunities that can’t be had from church and community involvement instead. Things like the Eagle Scout award didn’t end up giving me great employment and educational opportunities (as I was led to believe), because most people in the U.S. seem to have written scouting off as an outdated eccentricity. As I’ve moved beyond my teen years and experienced more of the world, I’ve realized that the narrow vision scouting projects isn’t very realistic or desirable. Instead, the Boy Scouts don’t represent America, but rather a desperate clinging to objectionable parts of American’s history.
I know it was just an example, but I have been many places far away from any humans, signs, and roads, where no iphone is going to be fully functional, not that I had one anyway. Sure many people will never leave the security blanket of their cell phones and asphalt, but for those of us with a sense of adventure, it's good to be able to figure out where you are with an old fashioned compass and map. I should know, I wandered around many hills and mountains before I really figured out how to orient myself. Also, in a natural disaster, it is likely that cell, internet and other technology crutches will be down. Not that you'll be in the middle of nowhere, but you might need to travel and it helps if you can find your way without Google maps.
ReplyDeleteashley, I'll grant you that orienteering is not an absolutely obsolete skill. However, I would say that first, when scouts learn that skill the do it at the expense of some other skill they could be learning instead that they would both enjoy more, and that could use more. In other words, there is a finite about of time and orienteering seems like a pretty silly way to spend it. (Also, a good GPS doesn't stop working in the wilderness.) Second, I would say that even if people do want to learn to use a compass and map, it would be better to learn that within the framework of a different organization that doesn't pretend to be an army or promote extreme nationalism.
ReplyDeleteI liked this post a lot, but I hated scouting so much when I was growing up. I felt like it was a machine to subvert individuality. I have my Eagle scout too, but it really hasn't made a difference in my job or school situation. If I ever have kids I don't intend for them to be involved in scouting.
ReplyDeleteIts sad to belong to something utopian like this and then to realize that it is false and too good to be true.
The Boy Scouts are certainly going out of fashion, and it's true that the movement has jingoistic tendencies. I listened to a recording recently in the British Library of Baden Powell giving a speech to Boy Scouts, and it sounded, verbatim, like a war speech. The whole movement has its roots in late Victorian war efforts.
ReplyDeleteBut I think your post misses something crucial: communities always necessitate at least some intolerance. Whenever a group of people meet together to celebrate common interests, it follows that people who do not share those interests cannot truly be part of that community. Some groups will claim open mindedness and claim that they'll let everyone join with them, but such groups seldom last long: those who are really committed to the group's goals will either break away from the lukewarm members, or the committed members will lose their passion.
All communities subvert individuality. If they don't they cannot be called communities because there is no loyalty (or individual sacrifice) to the group's goals. Most people who bemoan organizations that quash individuality simply lose their individuality to another community. (Think of the thousands and thousands of "indie" kids that dress alike, have the same playlists, like the same foreign films, etc. - though they're a group I identify with, even still.)
I do agree with your conclusion, though. If the Boy Scouts do not evolve, if they do not shed some of the dated and hokey strains, the LDS church would do well to distance themselves from the organization. And this comes from someone who really enjoyed scouting.
I think the new Duty to God award program is a sign they're headed this direction.
Jon, I agree that communities tend to be predicated on intolerance, though the idea that we should simply accept that or endorse it is alarming to me (I realize that wasn't what you said but I feel like that's a possible implication). I think that it comes down to who "us" is. I feel like BSA defines "us" as heterosexual christian men, which is hardly acceptable in my opinion. More alarming, however, is the fact that "us" for the BSA seems to be synonymous with "American." That is what strikes me as problematic about them: that they don't just want to create a community, but that they want their image of a community to be the one that defines the larger culture. Some communities define themselves against the norm (indie kids, for example) and some define themselves AS the norm.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also think that its worth TRYING to over come intolerance, or at least not basing it on the things that the BSA does. On the other hand it could be argued that this post is intolerant of the BSA and their ideology, which is my effort to redefine the norm to exclude those things that I find objectionable.
It is also interesting that the Cub Scouts built their mythology around the characters from "The Jungle Book," which was of course written by another British Victorian thinker/writer - Rudyard Kipling, who famously penned "The White Man's Burden."
ReplyDeleteJohn, I didn't even think about that. That complicates things even more of course...
ReplyDelete