LESSON ON POLITICS
COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 22 Apr 2009
A teacher gave her fourth graders a lesson about politics. Johnny raised his hand and said, "I don’t understand all that." "Go home and ask your father," she said, "he is a politician, he will explain it to you."
When Johnny came home, he found his father sitting on his armchair, reading the paper. "Father," he said, "can you explain to me what politics is?" His father said, "It is quite simple. Look at our family.
Mother makes all the decisions, so she corresponds to the ‘Government.’ I earn the money, so I would say that I correspond to ‘Capital.’ Our maid does the work around the house, so she corresponds to the ‘Working Class’. We all take care of you, so you would correspond to the ‘People,’ and your little baby sister corresponds to our ‘Future’." Johnny said, "I will think about it."
That night, he woke up when his baby sister was crying. He found that she urgently needed her diapers changed. So he first opened the door to the parents’ bedroom and found his mother alone, in deep sleep. He went to the maid’s room, and saw that his father was in bed with her. In the meantime, the baby sister had stopped crying, so he simply went back to sleep.
The next day, his teacher asked him if he could explain politics to the class. Johnny said, "Now I understand it all. The people are being ignored while the government sleeps and capital screws the working class, and the future is full of shit."
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 22 Apr 2009.
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