Electronic – Why does current continue flowing in a circuit

My favorite educator, Bill Beaty, often rants at the many misconceptions that all too many people have been infected with. One of the many common misconceptions involves batteries.

"Frequently-Asked Electricity Questions": "THE LIQUID BETWEEN A BATTERY'S PLATES IS A GOOD CONDUCTOR. SO WHY DOESN'T IT SHORT OUT THE BATTERY?"

"Why is electricity so hard to understand?" "...mistaken belief that no charge flows through batteries. ... This leads to the traditional incorrect flashlight-current explanation (current comes out of battery, flows...etc.) It also leads to the misconception that batteries SUPPLY CHARGE, and have a storage place for "used" charge. This might make sense if we believe that there's no path for charge through the battery. But it's wrong, because there is a path, a path provided by flowing charged atoms. Charge must flow around and around a circuit, passing THROUGH the battery over and over."

"But how SHOULD we teach kids about 'electricity'?" "A battery is a chemically-fueled charge pump. Like any other pump, a battery takes charges in through one connection and spits them out through the other. A battery is not a source of the "stuff" being pumped. When a battery runs down, it's because its chemical fuel is exhausted, not because any charges have been lost. ... When you "recharge" a battery, you are pumping charges through it backwards, which reverses the chemical reactions and converts the waste products back again into chemical fuel."

'Which way does the "electricity" really flow?' "When you connect a lightbulb to a battery, you form a complete circuit, and the path of the flowing charge is through the inside of the battery, as well as through the light bulb filament. Battery electrolyte is very conductive."

why can't electrons also flow from the negative terminal in battery 2, through the right bulb, and into the positive terminal of battery 1?

Because the only way to get to the negative terminal of battery 2 is to come from the body of the battery, and the only way to get there is from the positive terminal of the battery. And the only way to get there is through the switch in the friend's house, which is open so no current can flow through it.

Batteries don't create electrons from nothing. They "pump" them from one terminal to the other via a chemical reaction, causing current to flow (through the battery) from a low potential to a high potential.

Current only flows in complete circuit means the current has to flow through the battery just as much as it has to flow through every other circuit element.

As an aside, it's also why it's silly to say that current always flows from high potential to low --- the battery is a trivial example of when it's the other way around. And it's also silly to say that all current is a flow of electrons in the opposite direction from conventional current --- the battery is a trivial and everyday example of when ionic currents should be considered.