We lie to our children. We deceive them with morality tales to make them behave conveniently for their supervision. I've come to see that the morality tales I swallowed, including the Gospels, left me unsuited for living among the humans, few of whom are as scrupulous. Why should I leave my son so poorly prepared? Why not write a set of stories about who really prospers, the `psychopath in the corner office', the kid born to wealth and connections, or the heartless arriviste, rather than anyone with empathy? My cynicism shouldn't turn him into a sociopath, but even if it should, I'm just setting him up to succeed!
A fine template for a book of short stories, or a picture book. Whether the characters are animals, a la Aesop, or some other archetype, I can assign a simple characteristic to each `winner' and `loser'. I just need to avoid giving all of the `good' losers an obvious shared physical characteristic, and so with the `bad' winners: glasses, or their lack, in `Crimes and Misdemeanors'.
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