Scariness

Today, my dad, some brothers, and I were at Target looking for a gift for another brother who just had his birthday. While browsing the toy aisle, Dad and I came across a car/toy set. The car was just a Matchbox car; the toy was a small plastic monster - a dinosaur skeleton, a big-clawed Yeti, etc.

Dad said "I don't see the point of playing with that."

After a good deal of rumination and pecan pie, I found the point.

Since children are too young to be sophists, they believe in a world of Good and Evil. The Good people, moreover, should oppose and fight the Bad people. That is well and good.

But they naturally assume the Good People are perfectly good, and the Bad People are perfectly bad. If this belief lasts beyond age 5, trouble ensues.

So, they make the Bad People look evil. Very, very evil. Claws, wicked glares, maevolent smiles, big teeth - the whole works. Point of fact, they don't let them be people - they make them monsters of one sort or another.

Thus, Satan's minions don't get confused with Mr. Jackson, who lives down the street.

Very necessary thing, that.