Ursula Le Guin's blog post "The Inner Child and the Nude Politician", found in the collection No Time to Spare, is such a profound insight into much that has driven society to be attracted to quick fixes and politician's promises.
It starts with a quotation attributed to her, which is at the very most a misquotation. But the whole premise of it bothered her, as it says that only the child is creative and truly living, so to grow up is to die. This is of course a common trope in much of art and literature.
She digs further into what this means to her and for society. She shares some wonderful lines from Wordsworth that provide a different perspective, a call to live the fullest life we can in this interlude from immortality. This by itself provides a platform for a much longer discussion.
Then the blog turns back to the very real consequences of praising childhood above adulthood...drives us to value lack of experience, raw talent and devalue expertise, knowledge, science. And look where that has got us today. Our politicians really do need to grow up and focus on the immortality, not ratings today.
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