I was reading a book to my daugther, she is 19 months old, mind you. And all of the sudden it struck me: We live in a democratic world, we strive to inculcate a spirit of egalitarian society into our children, and what do they see in the classic fables? An authoritarian regime! ;-) OK, the 100 acre wood is a bit different, and a plethora of stories is simply unconcerned with political systems. Yet the classic fables - they are relics of not-too-democratic times and romantic yearnings for kings, queens, princesses and whatnot. Could have been worse, of course, they could have been promoting slavery or something :-|. Anyway the point is that effectively we are etching authoritarian patterns on the little brains and then crudely scraping them as the brains grow older. Kind of stupid.