The ‘Never Again’ Mantra
This week, instead of one, longer story, I’ll begin with two shorter ones.
Some parents feel they’ve failed their children if they don’t take them to Disneyworld. But the Magic Kingdom doesn’t always yield bliss. It’s hot and the lines are long. Sometimes the costumed characters are too much in kids’ faces. Plus, children load up on sugary snacks and beverages and crash emotionally after consuming these. And the rides at local or regional amusement parks are much better.
A couple I know brought their five-year-old son, an only child, there. Things didn’t go well. Late in the afternoon, the boy had a breakdown. As they reached the exit, he howled, through tears, “Don’t ever take me here again!”
When my wife, Ellen, and I heard this story, we laughed because this kid was kind of temperamental and though we hadn’t been to Disney, we suspected it was overrated. Many get swept up in the hype about “the magic.” The contrast between the idyllic Disney ads and the visual/audio image of this kid’s real-world meltdown struck us as funny.
Regardless, when Ellen and I go somewhere that disappoints us—as after a downright painful couples $20 “Accupressure” massage in a cramped upstairs “studio” in New York City’s Chinatown or a bad restaurant meal or day trip—one or the other of us will say, kiddingly but seriously, “Don’t ever take me here again!”
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Over the years, we’ve all had embittering experiences, and known others who have. We’ve known and been crime victims, been cheated in commercial dealings, had hearts broken in relationships, etc. Typically, there’s no way to fix what happened. The criminals aren’t caught. The scammers worth suing. And it turns out that “let’s just be friends” is just something people say to soften the blow of a breakup. As Taylor Swift sang, “We are never, ever, ever getting back together.”
Lacking a way to change the past, humans console themselves by saying that the bad experience taught them about life or about themselves. They
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
