the burden of choice

An interesting philosophical point being made here, and known by every parent, is that the power of choice is not the same power over the course of your life. Like everything else in your existence, it can be cultivated and made to flourish; it can also be stunted, twisted, and perverted. Furthermore, parents know that, when we're young, we have the power to choose, but we lack the knowledge and wisdom to make good choices. If we make poor choices starting early in life, this will lead to a habit of making poor choices later on—a habit that can stay with us for the rest of our lives. We can become comfortable making poor choices, and those poor choices can eventually seem desirable, leaving us wallowing in our own shit. If you have good parents, they'll teach you to choose well, and you'll form good habits of mind early. Most of us, however, have imperfect parents, so the life-lessons we learn tend to be muddled at best. If you're a lazy relativist, you'll challenge all of this by demanding to know what "good" means. It means whatever is conducive to happiness for you and for those around you, your mental/physical health, and your moral fiber, i.e., your ability to tell right from wrong and to live according to that discernment which, over time, ideally ought to coalesce into a set of principles that you can then pass down to the next generation. Wisdom should build on wisdom. Unfortunately, we live in a world where the unwise too easily breed before their unwisdom eventually removes them from the gene pool.

We're asking kids to handle things most adults can't pic.twitter.com/UPDT1oqY8x

— internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F) April 16, 2026