Manny's Reviews > Pippi Calzelunghe

[Original review, Sep 4 2018]

I'm trying to improve my miserable Italian, and when we were in Italy a couple of weeks ago I bought a bunch of children's books, intending to use my normal method of just reading them without a dictionary and picking things up. So far, it's working well. I loved Il Mago di Oz, and this one was also very enjoyable. I think I'd read about two-third of the episodes previously in Swedish or German, but some of them were new.

Reading in a language you're not familiar with forces you to slow down and think about what you're seeing. When I've read Pippi before, I've simply enjoyed the story, which is hilarious. But this time, crawling along in my Italian first gear, I started to wonder whether there was any underlying message beneath the non-stop stream of jokes. It seems to me that there is. Pippi cares deeply about children's rights. She is always on the child's side against the adults, and now she makes me think about how we don't, in fact, care very much about children's rights.

The fact that children have very few real rights is highlighted by the fact that it is, as far as I know, universally accepted that they should not have the right to vote. Of course, the adults have their arguments well prepared: children are too young to know how to use their votes intelligently, they'd just be manipulated by unscrupulous adult politicians, etc. These arguments would sit better if they hadn't also been used against the idea of enfranchising women. Switzerland was very late to the table here, and only gave women the vote in 1971. A few months ago, we saw an exhibition of posters from the two referendum campaigns. The No side kept making the point that those poor women just wouldn't know how to use the power they'd receive, and would be tugged in all directions by forces they didn't comprehend. Well, that may be true: but unfortunately, it applies equally well to male voters. In fact, giving women the vote seems to have worked out fine for Switzerland.

I wonder what would happen if the voting age were reduced to nine, the age that Tommy, Annika and Pippi are in the book. Maybe those kids would make crazy decisions, like voting to abolish homework and give themselves extra candy every day. Or maybe they'd do something even crazier, and vote for massive investment in renewable energy, better education, and higher taxes to pay for all of it. This strikes me as pretty sensible strategy for people who are expecting to spend the next sixty or seventy years living here: they'd be more inclined to think long-term. Why is it obvious that they would make worse decisions than voters at the other end of their lives, who tend to be equally hazy about the issues and won't have to deal with the consequences for very long? No one would dream of taking the vote away from pensioners; but somehow, it seems equally far-fetched to give the vote to children.

Of course, it won't happen: at the end of the day, the adult voters would never approve it, because it would mean giving up too much power. The only possible chance would be if a child emerged who had the charisma and strength to organise the kids, create the movement, and lead it to success. But there is no such child. Children aren't like that, and so the adults are safe.

Ah, if only the heroine of this book existed. Pippi for president!
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[Update, Apr 24 2019]

Correction: Greta Thunberg for president!

Well, you gotta admit I was close.