Monday, September 7, 2009

What attribute would you give all children?

If you could give all children a powerful attribute, what would you give them? For example, if you gave children "patience", suddenly they would be super patient. They would never cry or whine whenever they didn't get what they want right this second!

My first thought would be "self-esteem". But then I don't think that would be so great because it could lead to selfishness or self-obsession, which I think our culture promotes way too much.

Cindy said she'd give them "persistence". Never give up. I think giving up is a good characteristic - or at least an underrated one. We all should know when to give up and move on.

What about intelligence? We'd have a bunch of smart alecs running around correcting our grammar. The good news is that when we're old they would have likely fixed all the problems we created and would keep us alive in dream pods or machines that trick our brains into thinking we're living in a perfect, heaven-like world. Tempting.

What about "morality"? Bor-ring. We need evil. We need a few kids growing up evil to keep us on our toes. All our stories and movies and books are essentially good vs. evil.

I think I would give kids "self-discipline". That would mean controlling urges and would basically eliminate tempers, bad habits, drug addiction and boozing. Kids would grow up fitter, happier and healthier. We could all use more self-discipline.

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