When you're a little kid, you know when someone is a bully or a jerk. It's obvious. And then everyone grows up, and you come to believe that they've gotten better, that they've become mature and 'adult.' But they don't. They just get better at hiding it. They have better words for it, better lies. Workers aren't fired because 'they're weird,' they're fired because 'they aren't team players.' A man isn't beaten because 'he didn't do what I said,' he's beaten because 'he had no respect for authority.' Citizens of a foreign country aren't bombed to death because 'they're weak and nobody likes them,' they're bombed because 'we have to liberate them.'

Nobody grows up. They just get better at concealing their bestial childishness.

They will tell you that this is an oversimplification, that the situations and difficulties faced by adults are far more complex than those that kids have to face. Yet every day our leaders and representatives announce with great authority that each issue divides between positions of 'good and evil,' 'right and wrong.' Black and white. You are with us or you are against us. And when they are caught doing something in contradiction to the stated principles, we are told that we do not understand the complexity of their problems.