My problem is with the resurgence of an old American tradition of celebrating young people as inherently wiser and more moral than adults. There are really three problems with the fetishization of youth in politics. First it’s based on a faulty premise: That young people have a radically or uniquely superior insight into political affairs.

This is an ancient confusion. It usually hinges misinterpreting the fact that young people see the world with fresh eyes, as it were.

And it’s true that young people have a gift for cutting through the false pieties and polite fictions of modern life, as when a nephew points out how much weight you’ve gained. Even the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes is a story about a kid too ignorant to know when to placate the King’s vanity.