Thought of the Day 07.23.08

I’ve been wondering lately whether socialists might just be people who never had any siblings or else had only one child themselves. See, socialism is essentially the idea everyone can be taken care of if we’d all do our part to be productive and share everything we have, and this can be done without too much government coercion. But consider my own two boys.

Whereas only-children can appear peaceful simply by lacking competitors, siblings will squabble over every item in the house. Things you’d never think to be scarce become prized pieces of territory in the struggle for self-exertion: a pizza pan, a scrap of torn paper, mom’s lap, or even some old toy that was sitting on a shelf for a month until three minutes ago when brother started playing with it.

And although I expect to have sufficiently redirected these impulses before my sons reach their teens, I’m not so optimistic as to believe that a society can be built around the assumption that all parents will succeed with all children at this task.