How big is the damage?
Very big. It's about life in its entirety.
Well, nobody guaranteed you anything marvelous and fabulous. I don't think anybody has been promised such things.
What about people who are born with silver spoons in their mouths?
Or, those born in a crib made of gold?
Can be both, if you are half Anglo and half Portuguese...
If you happen not to be born under such circumstances, just remember what the Georgians say. Better your own copper than another man's gold. By the way, any idea on the perpetuators who inflicted that horrible damage on you?
I know exactly who they are.
Can you give away their names?
Of course. Madame d'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, J. M. Barrie...
They are all authors of fairy tales! Do you mean to say that they gave you wrong ideas about life?
Yes. For example, they inculcated in me that the good triumphs over the evil. You know how disappointing it can be when you cannot let go of that belief when you have become a grown-up.
Their stories are world famous, so if it is their fault that you believe in such a false idea, other people must suffer from the same consequences. However, we all know that the vast majority of us does not. The inevitable conclusion is that it is your problem that you cannot shed that misconception about the world we live in.
They also told me that being good will eventually make you nice-looking.
I'm not sure about that, although it is implied that correct people are always handsome.
Anyway, why did they try to deceive me in the first place?
Many of the contes de fées were written initially for adults, but were watered down for children. They were changed to meet their demands.
But that's like giving them a candy whenever they ask for one!
I guess you can say that.
I think it's a plot by the adults to keep the children innocent and simple so that they are easy to manipulate.
Just as we discipline them to be honest for our purposes? Isn't it true though that children prefer stories meant for children to those for adults?
That's the issue that I just raised. Should you feed them candies instead of other more nutritious food for dinner, just because they prefer candies?
Do you want them to start thinking early in their lives that the truly good guys are not necessarily meant to win in real life? Or, life may not turn out to be as glamorous as one wishes it to be?
Well, we can say that we overdose children with optimism so that they can survive through this arduous process called life. If we already turn pessimistic as kids, it would be harder to deal with difficulties which are to come.
Yes, we can do with some optimism, ahem.
It puzzles me that I haven't heard some kind of an apology as I turned into an adult, something to the effect of: "All these years we enchanted you with fairies, pirates, and talking pigs and bears. We also told you stories in which the good guys beat the bad ones hands down. Sorry kid, those were plain lies. Forget about them. We just wanted you to believe that you are one of the selected few and look forward to what life could offer to those few, because..."
It's not that bad, I'd say.
Let me finish, please.
All right, go ahead.
"Because if you die before you procreate, there will be a big problem with passing on the genes, you see, and that is something we want to avoid at all cost."
You've reduced it to a biological problem again!
We are living organisms. We can't get away from that, I'm afraid.
It may be so, but can't we say that the grown-ups are genuinely helping the children in facing hardships in the future?
Optimism is one thing, mispresentation of life, another. Don't you remember the shock that you experienced when you found out that a Captain Hook does get his way in reality?
For me, it wasn't a big bang. The realization came slowly, so when I became fully conscious of that fact, it had been quite some time that I had suspected it.
I think it is a crime against humanity. Everyday, I struggle with the discrepancy between what we were told we should be doing and what people actually do. If we do believe in what we teach, we should at least try to practice it. But most people go about as if they have never heard of honesty, fairness, morality, integrity, dignity, correctness...
The first one to abandon the gentlemen's code in the gentlemen's world is the one who manages to snatch away more than her/his fair share.
Those guys wouldn't understand what "more than fair share" is. They think they deserve it all. Life becomes a competition to shed decency, because that is the easiest way to have it your way. Do you know what such an attitude is called?
I know what you are thinking, capitalisme sauvage, right?
Bravo, my dear comrade! Let me add that authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, etc., are all guilty of the same, namely, abuse of the less powerful.
And precisely in such a world, a silver spoon and a golden crib can be of great help...
Think about it, the ones who believed in the ideal world as presented by adults lose in the end, and those who didn't give a hoot win. If this is not a conspiracy, what is?
Another way to put it is that the children who are smart enough to realize the scheme get ahead. It's all about smartness and gullibility.
The fact remains: you should have never trusted the adults who told you and made you to trust them.
Going back to the stories for children, don't you think your childhood could have been less joyful if it had not been for the authors that you mentioned, plus Astrid Lindgren and...
Pippi! Karlsson! Rasmus! Where are you?
Michael Ende and...
Atréju!
Eleanor Farjeon and...
Martin Pipppppppiiiiiiiinnnn...!
... Are you still there?
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