For many decades, social psychology has empirically demonstrated that a statistically significant percentage of the American population argue that it is the most important child rearing value. Questions like this (there are several) reveal this value: "Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have: obedience or self-reliance?"
Attitudes toward child rearing say a lot about individual differences in social attitudes and perspectives of how society should operate, totally irrespective whether the adult being asked is a parent or not.
Given that 'Kent in SD' has repeatedly referred to his idea about child rearing and its effect on society, it seems to be very important value to him. Hence my question.
I will take issue with almost every aspect of what you said above.
- What is "a statistically significant percentage"? 10%? 25%? 33%? 51%?
- Binary questions like that force a black or white answer that in reality would be much more nuanced, as both are important and can co-exist simultaneously
- child age plays a role in answering such a question: the older a child gets, the balance between obedience and self-reliance would change toward self-reliance
"Kent is SD" referred to paternal presence in the life of a child, boys in particular, not directly to "obedience" or "authority." I hope that you are not arguing that paternal presence is not important in growing up?
What type of "authority" you are referring to? Biological (i.e., by the virtue of being a father) or earned authority? By earned authority, I mean child's respect for his/her father for what he is doing for them, sacrifices he has made, ethical examples he represents, being a positive role model, etc. Having a relationship with such an authority is a completely different case than authority based on "I am your father, you must obey!"
You seem to want to degrade and reduce the concept of authority to "authoritarian" sociological and theoretical concepts.
I believe "Kent is SD," as well as myself, represent dads with earned authority. My daughter listens to me not because I raised her to be obedient, but because she trusts my advice and experience, or, in other words, my "authority."