Rousseau thought that children were innately innocent, but maybe that is because he never reared any.
On the way to the Stuart Boat Show, we stopped at a favorite local restaurant for breakfast. I finished my Egg McMuffin before our 6-year-old had consumed his Big Breakfast with Hotcakes and decided to share with him some news of the world. I stumbled upon “China Bans Flights From U.S. as Covid-19 Measures Intensify” (WSJ):
The 6-year-old’s comment? “But they started Covid.”
Freed from the supervision of Senior Management, the young hater enjoyed his first caramel apple later that day. After sampling this new delicacy, he said, “You know what would be better? A caramel apple with no apple. The same size and shape, but all caramel.”
(Why don’t the Chinese postpone the 2022 Olympics until they’re willing to allow spectators? If the Japanese could kick the Olympics a year down the road, what would be wrong with a postponement to December 2022 or February 2023, for example? If we believe Science, COVID-19 won’t be a problem then. See “Fauci: US can get Covid under control by next year with more jabs” (Guardian, November 16, 2021), for example.)
Related:
- The Trump ban on non-citizen travel from China (January 31, 2020); see also, Joe Biden’s response and Michael Osterholm, quoted in the NYT, predicting that the entry ban wouldn’t stop COVID-19
Great comments, he is right on both counts. — I believe the Chinese want some positive propaganda and also show us how “zero” COVID-19 is done properly.
> “You know what would be better? A caramel apple with no apple. The same size and shape, but all caramel.”
That (very) young man has a future in IPOs! I hope you/he don’t take that as an insult:
he just likes to highlight the essence of what makes it great.
Seriously, he will learn in time that it’s the blending of the flavors from the apple and caramel which makes it such a satisfying treat. Or maybe not. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop? The world may never know, says the Owl.
At least he accurately identified the source of most of the world’s problems! It takes a very precocious six-year-old to feel that kind of freedom! You should have him go and meet Dr. Fauci and Senator Pelosi.
BTW I think the Egg McMuffins and Big Breakfasts are still the best breakfast items McDonald’s serves. Over the years McDonald’s hasn’t managed to corrupt their taste by messing too much with the formula.
And from a #Scientific perspective, I think modern neuroscience has proven Rousseau at least partially incorrect: in fact, the young brain has more connections that gradually become “pruned” and optimized as the child lives in the world, changing it themselves while being influenced and changed by it in a complex series of feedback loops.
Without the baggage of learned social convention and “political correctness” they are very honest, though, which is wonderful to see. They don’t “look over their shoulders” and instead say what they really think, without the filters and deceit we all accumulate later in life.
Philip here hurts 6-year old’s chances of rising to the top of corporate hierarchy. Sure in the near future woke inquisition will comb through all public quotations of a corporation founder and search for any expressions of “hate”, including those 6 year olds.
Bright child, at his age I had similar ideas but about a cake without a dough, why all the cake can not be just cream?