Laissez-faire Pigs
Recently I heard a political pundit on the radio comparing George Bush to Harry Truman. He was saying that although Bush’s ratings are low (as were Truman’s when he left office) history will show what a great president he was. It made me think of something I wrote a while back. This is old but I thought I would post it anyway just in case there are still one or two of you out there who still support George W. The first section is an email that was floating around in 2007. The second half is my response.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
email-
One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back And stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked,'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly, the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity. The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms- just a little at a time. One should always remember 'There is no such thing as a free Lunch!' Also, 'You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
my responce-
That’s a nice story but people are not pigs. Whether truly needy or merely lazy, the truth is while there will always be people feeding off the trough of public assistance it is also true that there will always be people who strive for much more, and will stay clear of any fences.
Believe me I get it. Laissez-faire capitalism in its purist form is the only hope for the world. We’ve all read “Animal Farm.” Even one single socially progressive policy is sure to doom all of humanity to universal enslavement for all of eternity. Since we’re talking in absolutes, with no room for compromise of ideas, why don’t we dust off our old copies of “1984,” and thumb through those for a minute.
While this guy wastes his time writing about something that “might” happen to some imaginary pigs in an imaginary land Human rights are being taken away for real right now.
In January of this year in a signing statement attached to a postal reform bill, Bush asserted his power to read Americans mail without a warrant.
The president has admitted to the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world. Through a process called “rendition,” The CIA has taken to kidnapping Canadians and Germans from their own countries and flying them to places with lax rules on torture such as Jordan and Syria for “interrogation.”
This year Internal FBI documents disclose 113 cases in which the agency violated federal law during investigations from 2002 to 2004 including extending investigations for months without approval and gaining banking record illegally.
For the last few years a republican congress allowed the National Security Administration to secretly wiretap phones and emails of Americans, and to compile records of which web sites ordinary people visited, all without court orders.
Last year that same Republican congress passed a law, doing away with habeas corpus (the right of trial) for foreigners detained by the United States as suspected terrorists. Just this week when the democrats tried to repeal that same law the republicans in congress blocked it from even coming up for a vote.
Less you feel it’s OK to take that right away from foreigners as long as they are not Americans, may I remind you that our founding fathers said “all men …are endowed with certain inalienable Rights. ” not just some men.
But I don’t hear you freaking out about any of that… and that’s real.
The fact that we put up with this kind of policy is a direct product of the type of fear mongering that “absolutes” create - whether it’s on the right or the left. The world is not going to collapse just because we give a single mother, who just got laid off, a few bucks until she find another job.
Ideals are great and we all hate the commies but don’t use that as an excuse to close your eyes to what’s really going on today. This guy has to wake up from the 1950’s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
email-
One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back And stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked,'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly, the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity. The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms- just a little at a time. One should always remember 'There is no such thing as a free Lunch!' Also, 'You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
my responce-
That’s a nice story but people are not pigs. Whether truly needy or merely lazy, the truth is while there will always be people feeding off the trough of public assistance it is also true that there will always be people who strive for much more, and will stay clear of any fences.
Believe me I get it. Laissez-faire capitalism in its purist form is the only hope for the world. We’ve all read “Animal Farm.” Even one single socially progressive policy is sure to doom all of humanity to universal enslavement for all of eternity. Since we’re talking in absolutes, with no room for compromise of ideas, why don’t we dust off our old copies of “1984,” and thumb through those for a minute.
While this guy wastes his time writing about something that “might” happen to some imaginary pigs in an imaginary land Human rights are being taken away for real right now.
In January of this year in a signing statement attached to a postal reform bill, Bush asserted his power to read Americans mail without a warrant.
The president has admitted to the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world. Through a process called “rendition,” The CIA has taken to kidnapping Canadians and Germans from their own countries and flying them to places with lax rules on torture such as Jordan and Syria for “interrogation.”
This year Internal FBI documents disclose 113 cases in which the agency violated federal law during investigations from 2002 to 2004 including extending investigations for months without approval and gaining banking record illegally.
For the last few years a republican congress allowed the National Security Administration to secretly wiretap phones and emails of Americans, and to compile records of which web sites ordinary people visited, all without court orders.
Last year that same Republican congress passed a law, doing away with habeas corpus (the right of trial) for foreigners detained by the United States as suspected terrorists. Just this week when the democrats tried to repeal that same law the republicans in congress blocked it from even coming up for a vote.
Less you feel it’s OK to take that right away from foreigners as long as they are not Americans, may I remind you that our founding fathers said “all men …are endowed with certain inalienable Rights. ” not just some men.
But I don’t hear you freaking out about any of that… and that’s real.
The fact that we put up with this kind of policy is a direct product of the type of fear mongering that “absolutes” create - whether it’s on the right or the left. The world is not going to collapse just because we give a single mother, who just got laid off, a few bucks until she find another job.
Ideals are great and we all hate the commies but don’t use that as an excuse to close your eyes to what’s really going on today. This guy has to wake up from the 1950’s.
Comments