One of my correspondents mentioned that (in a sense) she treats everyone like we are all in kindergarten. I realized she was hinting at me to lighten up. It’s a sweet sentiment, and, superficially; I get the emotional intelligence aspect.

But I am not sure I can agree. Perhaps there is a very different sort of kindergarten where she lives, but those I have seen ordinarily prepare children for roles that are unfit for human intelligence because they are the instruments of a culture too toxic to accomplish much else.

But I suppose I -could- agree, if kindergartens were… shall we say… a bit more… well, if they were really amazing. And prepared children to become the prodigies I honestly believe nearly all of them are…

Ever see Dune? If you imagine the ‘kindergarten’ that the Kwisatz Haderach might have attended… or, let’s say, a kindergarten on a spacecraft that an accident damaged and was now on a collision course with a star… or possibly a kindergarten in a place where lives are cheap and active sensing means not only intelligence, but survival… then I might agree. Maybe.

Because frankly, our -adults- need re-education if we are to merely survive let alone prosper. And breeding more children in the likeness of minds like those our culture assembles in its stupidifying image is criminal negligence and worse.

But if you mean that sickly-sweet, ‘play like we are still babies’ thing, where the worst parts of our childish egos, acquisitiveness, narcissism, feigned power, tantrums, victimhood, false achievement or fragility are coddled or even rewarded: no.

And if you mean that kindergarten in which, as a child, I was actually terrified to discover that none of my peers could read: no. Or the kindergarten where my teacher patronizingly explained to my mother that I had ‘a severe learning disability’ because I was not paying attention to ‘see Dick run’ in class.

The reason? I was reading 2001: A Space Odyssey. To my parents.

Kindergarten? Maybe it’s the right direction.

But we need a radical new form of it, for adults. One so advanced that none of them would ever catch up… maybe that’s a ‘kindergarten’ worth treating each other to.