At our library, we like to set up a puzzle for patrons to build. Many people enjoy taking a moment to add a piece here and there, or sort out the ones with similar patterns and colors. Sometimes a family will cluster around the table, assembling this and that. Other times, a kid will ponder the mess of pieces to excitedly pop one in its place.

However, there are individuals who are exceptions. And these exceptions make me want to utter some comments that would violate our etiquette policy, to say the least. You see, there are some children who never learned the basics of puzzle etiquette. Several times, work on the puzzle has been undone by a careless child who comes in after school, slams a backpack and coat onto the table, and then drags them off moment later. Pieces are torn from the partially-assembled puzzle, and scattered across the floor.

This is infuriating. But worse has happened. On another occasion, a toddler gleeflully mangled a nearly-finished puzzle while his mother looked on from a few feet away.

The best image I could find in a hurry. Image credit

Alas, the library is beset on all sides by the tragedy of the commons. The puzzle table is just a very obvious example. Most do treat library items with considerable care and respect, but some people treat our books with atrocious disregard. Of course, accidents do happen. I have seen a dog training book returned after a puppy expressed its disdain for instruction. People drop novels while reading them in the bathtub. Toddlers grab crayons and scribble on the nearest bit of paper. It's part of the business.

Rant ahead

It is always frustrating to see work damaged by people who don't care. On our side in the library, it is easy to see. People blatantly inflict damage in ways such that they cannot realistically claim ignorance. On the side of those who support taxation, it is far harder. Bureaucrats don't see the destruction they wreak. Worse still, voters imagine the destruction will somehow net a constructive benefit, at least for them. As the election cycle plods on, more and more people are deceived by promises that destroying someone else's puzzle helps them build their own. Meanwhile, the political class claims to be responsible for the existence of puzzles in the first place in this overly-tortured analogy.

Many people simply treat library items with recklessness they do not display with their own property. Why? Perhaps it is because they did not bear the cost. They didn't buy the books. They did not assemble the puzzle. Their value scale is skewed by this lack of perspective. It's not a matter of a lack of education, it's a basic psychological instinct. Of course, people pay for things indirectly, since our district is funded by theft property tax. And if they used that fact to justify damaging or stealing library property, I could understand it. I would disagree, since the library is one of the very few government services people generally appreciate and welcome. I suspect if we had administrators who saw taxation for what it is, a voluntary solution could be found.

Would it fix the puzzle problem? I don't know. We're talking about kids here. They're learning. And much of their learning is in a theft tax-funded school where they are told to live according to someone else's schedule, and regurgitate what someone else tells them. They have been handicapped intellectually by a system that is designed to train them to play the political puzzle game. If they would learn to intentionally destroy that puzzle instead of carelessly destroying ours, maybe society could progress.