Seond Carrot from the Right.

Comparison:

They were the carrots in the third-grade play.

Michael Lewis, he of Moneyball and The Big Short, needed a succinct way to peg non-attention-seeking, government public servants; he found it at a local elementary school.

Context:

[Concerning Government Agency Public Servants:]

Even their nominations [for a largely unknown honor for exceptional public service work called the Sammies] feel modest. Never I did this, but we did this. Never look at me, but look at this work! Never a word about who these people are or where they come from or why it ever occurred to them to bother. Nothing to change the picture in your head when you hear the word ‘bureaucrat.‘ Nothing to arouse curiosity about them, or lead you to ask what they do, or why they do it.

They were the carrots in the third-grade play. Our elected officials—the kids who bludgeon the teachers for attention and wind up cast as the play’s lead—use them for their own narrow purposes. They take credit for the good they do. They blame them when things go wrong.

Citation:

Lewis, Michael. Who is Government? Riverhead Books, 2025, pp. 4-5.

(Visual Image Design by Lee Aigue; initial images courtesy of Bing, Oct. 2025.)