Crabs
Crabs
-Enrico Giamondi
ASSATEAGUE, MD -- I still suffer from a childish idealism that as members of a democracy, we have a responsibility to work toward political goals that we believe will benefit us all, even at the expense of slight inconvenience or minor setbacks to our personal agendas. You assholes who vote for the guy who will save you a few bucks on your taxes, or who will institute medical malpractice reform because you work as a doctor - well you can go fuck yourselves.
A little allegory: When you boil crabs, you do so while they are alive. You throw all the crabs in a pot, and despite the fact that they are about to boil to death, you don't need to put a weight on the lid. The reason why? Because even if a crab reaches the lid and moves it, another will grab its legs in a vain attempt to pull itself out of the boiling water. And, in turn, step on the head of another trying to rise up. So, with a lid that any one crab could easily move, you can contain a dozen crabs that are all boiling to death, because each and every one of them is motivated by one thing - their own individual preservation. In the end, they all die.
That is the struggle of mankind. At some point we need to become evolved enough from the crustaceans that we can push one another out of the pot, instead of dragging one another into it. There are certainly examples of individuals that demonstrate that we as humans have the capacity to do so.
Firemen rushing into the World Trade Center, people diving into the icy potomac when the US Air flight hit the 15th street bridge, dissidents in countries where dissent lands you in jail, dead, or otherwise permanently silenced. Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, etc....these people all show that we have the *potential* to rise above the crab in a pot paradigm.
The problem is, we have not collectively done that yet, but once we do, mankind will certainly rise to a level of consciousness that was once only conceived of in mythology.
This should be the spirit of the politician. I'm certain that agreement on how we should act collectively, for the common good, is a matter of debate. I am certain that most of us would disagree (perhaps strongly) on what we need to do in order to benefit all. But there is a difference between a man who acts with the motivation to benefit all, but does so stupidly, ineptly, or simply improperly and the man who acts to benefit himself and succeeds, even if his success accidentally benefits many.
A man with good motivations will always change his course when he sees that it is driving the rest of us into a storm. But those who are in it for themselves will simply jump in a lifeboat when they have plundered the ship for all it is worth. That is why I would rather back a guy whose politics differ from my own over a guy whose politcs might be similar to my own. I want the guy who cares about us all in office, no matter what his politics are.
So, what are you? Are you a crab in a pot?
-Enrico Giamondi
ASSATEAGUE, MD -- I still suffer from a childish idealism that as members of a democracy, we have a responsibility to work toward political goals that we believe will benefit us all, even at the expense of slight inconvenience or minor setbacks to our personal agendas. You assholes who vote for the guy who will save you a few bucks on your taxes, or who will institute medical malpractice reform because you work as a doctor - well you can go fuck yourselves.
A little allegory: When you boil crabs, you do so while they are alive. You throw all the crabs in a pot, and despite the fact that they are about to boil to death, you don't need to put a weight on the lid. The reason why? Because even if a crab reaches the lid and moves it, another will grab its legs in a vain attempt to pull itself out of the boiling water. And, in turn, step on the head of another trying to rise up. So, with a lid that any one crab could easily move, you can contain a dozen crabs that are all boiling to death, because each and every one of them is motivated by one thing - their own individual preservation. In the end, they all die.
That is the struggle of mankind. At some point we need to become evolved enough from the crustaceans that we can push one another out of the pot, instead of dragging one another into it. There are certainly examples of individuals that demonstrate that we as humans have the capacity to do so.
Firemen rushing into the World Trade Center, people diving into the icy potomac when the US Air flight hit the 15th street bridge, dissidents in countries where dissent lands you in jail, dead, or otherwise permanently silenced. Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, etc....these people all show that we have the *potential* to rise above the crab in a pot paradigm.
The problem is, we have not collectively done that yet, but once we do, mankind will certainly rise to a level of consciousness that was once only conceived of in mythology.
This should be the spirit of the politician. I'm certain that agreement on how we should act collectively, for the common good, is a matter of debate. I am certain that most of us would disagree (perhaps strongly) on what we need to do in order to benefit all. But there is a difference between a man who acts with the motivation to benefit all, but does so stupidly, ineptly, or simply improperly and the man who acts to benefit himself and succeeds, even if his success accidentally benefits many.
A man with good motivations will always change his course when he sees that it is driving the rest of us into a storm. But those who are in it for themselves will simply jump in a lifeboat when they have plundered the ship for all it is worth. That is why I would rather back a guy whose politics differ from my own over a guy whose politcs might be similar to my own. I want the guy who cares about us all in office, no matter what his politics are.
So, what are you? Are you a crab in a pot?
posted by Enrico Giamondi at 2:50 PM
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