I am having my morning coffee close to a tiny merry-go-round on one of Zagreb’s most charming squares. It is meant for toddlers, which is why it is very slow. Only four of them can take a ride at a time. But everyone around the contraption can listen to the music meant to attract the children. Sung by toddlers, it is sweet and gentle. Too sweet and gentle, that is. Obnoxiously so, as a matter of fact. As a quick look at the assembled customers shows, it projects an entirely false vision of children. Perhaps the only thing they can learn from the music is how to extract whatever they want from their parents, relatives, and other minders. Forget about frowns and kicks. Stop wining and looking askance. Be sweet and gentle in spite of your true feelings. Dissimilate. Cheat to your heart’s content. As long as you get whatever you want, including a ride on the merry-go-round, everything is just as it should be. And the game will devolve from one generation to the next. Your own children will be taught the same old tricks. The nauseatingly sweet and gentle music will be there to help them along, too. The merry-go-round for true.