| The self-esteem movement revolved around a single notion, the idea, the single idea, that every child is special. |
| Boy, they said it over and over and over, as if to convince themselves. |
| Every child is special. |
| And I kept saying fuck you. |
| Every child is clearly not special. |
| Did you ever look at one of them? |
| Did you ever take a good close look at one of these fucking kids? |
| They’re goofy. |
| They’re fucking goofy looking. |
| They’re too small, they’re way too fucking small. |
| They’re malproportioned. |
| Their heads don’t fit their bodies; |
| their arms are too weird and everything. |
| They can’t walk across the room in a straight line. |
| And when they talk, they talk like they got a mouthful of shit. |
| They’re incomplete, incomplete, unfinished work. |
| I never give credit for incomplete work. |
| Now, PT Barnum might think they’re special, but not me, I have standards. |
| But let’s say it’s true. |
| Let’s grant this. |
| I’m in a generous mood. |
| Let’s grant this proposition. |
| Let’s say it’s true as somehow all…every child is special. |
| What about every adult? |
| Isn’t every adult special, too? |
| And if not, if not then at what age do you go from being special to being not-so-special? |
| And if every adult is special then that means we’re all special, and the whole idea loses all its fucking meaning. |