Five Bees for a Quarter

"GIVE ME FIVE BEES FOR A QUARTER," YOU'D SAY. People think of children as either sweet and innocent or too stupid to cause much trouble and both views are wrong. A child of elementary school age has the moral reasoning and impulse control of a racoon paired with problem solving equal to or superior to an adult’s, yet unbound by the shackles of cautionary experience or awareness of long-term consequence. This is what allows the children to both create a black market in live bioweapons while still only valuing said weapons at 25 cents.

A Simpsons image shows three elderly men listening as one recalls a child asking for five bees in exchange for a quarter. The accompanying text humorously argues that children combine poor impulse control with surprisingly capable problem-solving, allowing them to create a black market in live bioweapons while undervaluing them. It is used as an absurd reaction to jokes about children being dangerously clever and irrational.

• @pokupkabitka / 22606 2023-02-22