Political Treatise

One Cuts, One Chooses

There is one cookie.
There are two of you.
Who gets the bigger half?

On a happy day, you share.
On a grumpy day, you grab.
Everybody has grumpy days.
Grown-ups have them too.

Make a rule for the grumpy day.

Here is a good rule.
You cut the cookie.
Your friend picks first.

Now think about the cutting.
If you cut it crooked,
your friend takes the big half.
So you cut it very straight.

You do not have to feel kind.
You can feel grumpy.
The rule still keeps it fair.

Make a rule for the grumpy day.

Some rules need everyone happy.
Those rules break on grumpy days.
A good rule works on both days.

Is the rule there because you are bad?
No. You are not bad.
You are a person.
People get tired and hungry and cross.
The rule is for those days.
It helps you too.

Make a rule for the grumpy day.

So keep trying to be kind.
And when you make up a game,
ask one question.
Does it still work
if someone gets grumpy?

Pick a game today.
Find its grumpy-day rule.
Say it with me:

Make a rule for the grumpy day.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: the idea is the Political Treatise’s first rule. A state whose safety depends on its rulers staying honest will not last, so its affairs must be ordered so that people cannot easily be led to act badly, whether reason or passion is driving them (I.6). Cut-and-choose is not Spinoza’s example; his are councils too large to buy and citizens who keep their own arms. It runs on the same mechanism, a rule that turns self-interest into fairness. He is not saying people are wicked: he treats anger and envy as part of human nature, the way storms are part of the weather.

Find Out Why

Your little brother is crying.
He kicks his feet.
He throws his spoon.

You could laugh at him.
You could yell at him.
You could start crying too.

Don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Find out why.

Rain is not mean.
Rain falls because clouds are full.
Crying comes from somewhere too.

Is he hungry?
Is he tired?
Did his tower fall down?

Don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Find out why.

You look.
You ask him.
You wait a little.

Oh. His tummy is empty.
Now you know the why.
Maybe you can help.
Maybe a grown-up can.

Don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Find out why.

Finding out why is not saying yes.
If he throws the spoon at you,
you can still say stop.
You can still feel cross.
You can still get a grown-up.
Then you look for the why.

Don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Find out why.

Next time someone is cross,
be a why-finder.
Look for what made it happen.
Say it with me:

Don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Find out why.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: this is the treatise’s most quoted sentence, “I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions” (I.4). Spinoza goes on to call anger, envy and pity properties of human nature, as heat, storm and thunder are properties of the air: they have fixed causes, and the useful thing is to learn them. The weather in the primer is his own picture. Understanding a cause is not approving the act, and it does not always give you the fix, which is why the primer keeps the stop, the cross feeling and the grown-up.

Push Together

The wagon is full of sand.
You pull. You pull hard.
It does not move.

Alone it is stuck. Together it moves.

Your friend comes over.
Two of you pull.
Bump, bump, it rolls!

One pair of hands gets tired.
One pair of eyes can’t see behind.
One person has to sleep sometime.
Two can take turns.

Alone it is stuck. Together it moves.

More friends come.
Now you can build a big fort.
One friend holds the wall.
One friend fetches sticks.
One friend keeps watch.
And you have time to dream up a flag.

Alone it is stuck. Together it moves.

Together is for lifting.
It is not for being mean.
Say the team is mean to its own kids.
Those kids get mad.
Mad kids stop pulling.
Then nothing moves at all.

Alone it is stuck. Together it moves.

Today, find something too heavy.
Ask a friend to help you.
And when a friend asks you,
go and help.

Say it with me:
Alone it is stuck. Together it moves.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: in chapter II, two people who unite their strength have more power together than either alone, and without mutual help people can hardly keep alive or cultivate the mind (II.13–15). Spinoza goes a step further than the primer: he treats a person’s natural right as the same thing as their power, so joining adds right as well as strength. The primer leaves that step out, because a six-year-old would hear that the bigger group is always right. The fence in the primer is his too: a state that makes most of its people angry gives them cause to band together against it, and its power shrinks (III.9).

Scared Quiet Is Not Peace

The playground is very quiet.
Nobody shouts.
Nobody runs.

A big kid stands by the slide.
Everyone is scared of him.
So everyone stays still.

Is that peace?
No. That is just quiet.

Scared quiet is not peace.

Now it is a new day.
The big kid went home.
Kids run and laugh.
Someone waits for the swing.
Someone shares the ball.
Two kids argue, then make up.

Scared kids only try not to get hurt.
Happy kids try to have fun.
That is the difference.

Scared quiet is not peace.

Peace still has rules.
You still wait your turn.
You still give the ball back.
Nobody has to scare you.
You keep the rules to keep playing.

One kid can’t make peace alone.
Everybody does a little part.
You can do yours.

Scared quiet is not peace.

Today at play,
keep one rule on your own.
Wait your turn.
Or share the ball.
Say it with me:

Scared quiet is not peace.

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: “peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from force of character” (V.4). A country kept still only by terror, Spinoza says, is free of war without being at peace, and a people led more by hope than fear aims at living, where a conquered one aims only at not dying (V.6). The playground is a swapped picture for a commonwealth. Peace in his sense still has rules; what changes is that people keep them from their own steady will, which is why the primer keeps the waiting and the sharing.