 troll-like street graffiti – foto by smith i keep thinking about the fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff (Norwegian: De tre bukkene Bruse) and what it teaches our children. in it, a young billy goat crosses a bridge, beneath which is a troll who eats everyone that crosses. the troll comes up to eat him. the young goat talks himself out of being eaten by saying he is so small and his much bigger brother is crossing right behind him – the troll should eat him instead. the troll lets him go. the second goat says the same thing – “o don’t eat me, eat my much bigger brother who’s right behind me.” the troll lets him go as well. when the third and largest billy goat crosses, the troll comes up to eat him, but is outmatched and gored by the much larger opponent. looking at this story from the billy goats’ perspective, it teaches us to lie, to turn on family members, to sacrifice them to save ourselves. looking at it from the troll’s point of view, it teaches us not to turn down a free real meal now in lieu of a maybe better meal later on. fairy tales are nasty creations. witches eat children, step-mothers poison their step-children or use them as house slaves, fathers sell their daughters, heroines lie and cheat and steal and have sex out of wedlock with animals (as in East of the Sun, West of the Moon). psychologists say this fairy tale nastiness is good and essential because it prepares our young for the random undeserved pain and misery real life visits on real people. i say we don’t need this nastiness – we get all the horror and nastiness we need just by listening to our politicians and corporations on our nightly non-news. moral of this story? eat a politician or a corporate executive today – they taste just like chicken, because they are.  muffler dog in front of muffler shop – foto by smith |