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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
December 8th, 2008 EXPLAIN IT TO ME JUST ONCE I have a long standing unanswered question about this nation and the mindset of its people. My lack of an answer comes not from effort; I have asked countless times. Nor does my ongoing query exist as some form of commentary on my limited intelligence; I am a fairly smart fellow and even if I hear things I vehemently disagree with I can always, without fail, at least understand them. Not so in the case of my great unanswered question. Over the years I have tried a variety of ways to get a variety of people to give me an answer; I have yelled, screamed, mocked, demonstrated via hypothetical, and joked around the subject hoping to attract a wide array of answers from people of varying backgrounds and intelligence levels. Hell, I have even tried just asking the question to someone’s face. Yet never have I received anything remotely close to an answer. I mean that quite literally. The closest I have come to answers have been people who stammered their way through an attempt at piecing together intelligent sounding words only to discover that they themselves didn’t know what they hell they were saying. Other answers have included the always popular dismissive wave of the hand uttered by either the phrase “you’re missing the point,” (though they never make an attempt to explain to me the point), or the always intelligent exclamation (still accompanied by the dismissive hand wave), “whatever.” Apparently my thirst for knowledge is not shared by all. The nicest response I have ever received to my question has been a long, pensive, thoughtful pause, followed by a raising of the eyebrow and a heartfelt, “I don’t know.” At least that’s honest, non-defensive and polite. The rest of the people I have surveyed over the years have resorted to bald-faced lies and personal attacks upon me; both of which are always appreciated. You have to be dying to hear the question by now. Not so fast. The question itself, I must warn you, is rather boring. I submit to you, however that all great questions of our time have been defined not by the question themselves, but rather by why they needed to be asked in the first place. Let’s be fair; those are boring questions on their face; it is only through examination of the questions combined with the varying answers we’ve received throughout time to them and the underlying premise as to why the question must be asked in the first place that makes those such great queries. Alas, it should be time for me to reveal my question. But it isn’t. A little background will serve us all well before going any further. Let’s start with this fact; I really, really do want an answer. By that I mean that I want someone to take what I am asking and focus solely on my question and a direct answer to it. I don’t want spin, hyperbole, personal attacks, commentary on why I am asking or patronizing condescension in the form of “there are too many variables to the question to give you a direct answer.” That is what we call pure bullshit. My question is simple, straightforward and in need of a very clear, concise answer, not a bunch of gobblety-gook. Secondly, understand this; I have always had this question since I was old enough to understand it, somewhere around the age of 8 when I first fell in love with money via the outstanding children’s book series “the Great Brain,” a tale written by legendary author John Dennis Fitzgerald, which chronicled his childhood and older brother Tom Dennis Fitzgerald’s “money-loving heart.” The books helped mold me into the man I became; someone who always looks for ways to make more money by being creative, working hard enough to earn the bounty and accepting full responsibility for either its success or failure. I didn’t grow up rich, I was poor for a while in my late teen years and I have sacrificed and worked for and earned everything I have today (which, compared to Bill Gates, professional athletes and entertainers is not a lot, but it’s still more than most and it helps make me content and proud). Throughout all of these various phases of my economic history, my question lingered. I was never wavered by my own personal suffering or hardships, nor was I swayed by the successes of others, whether those successes came from hard work or dumb luck. When I saw others doing better than me I was inspired to join them; thus my question remained intact and unanswered. Finally know this; I think I already know the only acceptable answer to the question. Unfortunately, it’s an answer that makes very sad. For that reason, I continue to seek a better one. As we stand at the precipice of one of America’s greatest economic challenges we are being bombarded with calls for Corporate CEOs to relinquish their bonuses and drastically cut their pay. We are told that we should take the profit that companies make and create a windfall profits tax, thus punishing their stunning success. We are encouraged to “soak the rich,” by raising their taxes again and again and again, thus discouraging people to make more money. The list of examples of class warfare go on and on and are not new. Calls for tearing people down by taking away what they have earned have existed since the days of Robin Hood, another childhood story that molded me because I always thought it was one of the worst tales every written. Yet, since the dawn of Sherwood Forrest, parents have thought it was a childhood rite of passage to hold up as a hero a man who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor; a vigilante who sought out and stole from successful people and gave to laziest. And so I formulated my question; it began with Robin Hood and the Great Brain and it continues today with the American Public who walks around uttering venom filled phrases aimed at corporate executives and their paychecks. How does the suffering of others improve your life? Remember the rules; don’t try to play word games with me and insist on a definition of suffering. Just answer the damned question. How is it that telling a CEO he can’t have his $50 million Christmas bonus check going to improve your life in any way? How is telling Exxon to give 50% of their profits to the United States government going to make your life better in any way? How is raising Bill Gates taxes going to make you happier? Answer the question. Don’t tell me that you’re going to use Exxon’s profit to “make the Earth greener,” because that’s just crap piled on crap. There’s no such god-damned thing and we all know it. Even if I cede to you the absurd notion that humans can “make the Earth greener (which we can’t),” you still haven’t told me how all of the suffering of all of the people who work at Exxon (many of whom will lose their jobs as a result of your stupid windfall profits tax) will make your life better. Am I to believe that you are living a horrible life currently due to dirty air and oceans? Please. The point of the use of the word “suffering” is to drive home what those who believe in class warfare really think. While people who refuse to answer my question want to point out that Bill Gates won’t suffer by paying 10% more to the government that belies the point on two levels; first of all, that extra 10% still does nothing to improve your life. Secondly and more importantly is that those who want to punish success and wealth really do want to make the successful and wealthy suffer. It is the sickest form of activism known to man; create equality by tearing down the best and brightest so that we all fall to the same miserable level. Thus the suffering of others still does nothing to improve your life, but misery, we’re told, loves company. You can’t answer the question. No one can because the question itself tears away the band aid of lies and exposes the truth without anyone uttering an attempt at an answer. We know this from history throughout the world and I know the answer to the question already. Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite writers of all time and he recently reminded his readers of an ancient tale that answers my question. His column of November 26 was my inspiration for once again asking my question and I encourage you to read his writings. (http://www.tsowell.com/) To come to the answer to my question, “how does the suffering of others improve your life,” allow me to tell you an old, old Russian fable which has been also been traced to other corners of the world throughout time, thus proving it is not a commentary on Russians, but rather on humans. Two poor peasants, Ivan and Boris were the best of friends. They went everywhere together and spoke of life always. The only difference between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn't. One day, Ivan came upon a strange-looking lamp and, when he rubbed it, a genie appeared. She told him that she could grant him just one wish, but it could be anything in the world. Imagine the bounty before Ivan; he was poor, forced to walk everywhere, work for every morsel he ate, be constantly tired and often cold and now here a genie would grant him one wish of no limitation; except that it was only one wish. Thus, Ivan had to wish for the most important thing in his entire world. Thus the answer to my question. Long before America existed or Bill Gates was a billionaire or Exxon was making trillions of dollars, the fundamental human condition of pure, unadulterated vengeance, evil and pettiness was alive and well.
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