Teach the Children (The Last in a Series of Downer Posts)

“It all depends on the money/and who is in your family tree.” Bloody Well Right, Supertramp

That about sums up where we are, doesn’t it? Money and connections are the tickets to the fabled American Dream.

Don’t teach your children to work hard and play by the rules -- that’s for suckers, so hopelessly 1992 -- progress to our brave new world. Take a lesson from American bankers: teach them to lie and cheat, game the system, rig the rules so that even if they lose, they win.

Teach them the virtue of selfishness. If the house next door catches fire it’s no concern of theirs, let it burn.

Teach them that there is no such thing as conflict of interest, only self-interest.

Teach them to disdain the poor, the infirm, and the weak. The world is made of winners and losers; winners are righteous, losers are lazy, stupid or both.

Teach them that wealth and power are infallible signs of superior character, and that moderation isn’t a virtue a rational person pursues.

Teach them to blame the victims. Tuck them into bed at night with stories of rugged individualism, heroes that go it alone, asking for no help from anyone.

Teach them that the world is full of parasites eager to latch onto the successful, sucking the lifeblood of drive, initiative and ambition; explain that despite what they may see or hear or experience, the playing field is level and the game fair for all.

Teach them that “government” is the most rapacious parasite of all, an insatiable demon hell bent on redistributing wealth.  

Teach them to know rather than to think.

Teach them that some human lives are inherently more valuable than other human lives.

Teach them that honesty is for the faint of heart, accountability for the unenlightened.

Bloody well right.