The Ant and the Grasshopper

Remember the old parable about the ant and the grasshopper? The one where the ant worked his ass off storing and saving for the long winter ahead, while the grasshoppers jumped around all summer long and laughed at the ant and his struggles, until they found themselves in the cold. Yeah, you know that one.

One would think that hard working Americans who devote their lives to living within their means, struggling to do without, living check to check with being two checks near the streets, would reap the benefit of being frugal. Nope. Not in America. Seems that in America, the only ones getting ahead are the grasshoppers, whom have shaved the earnings off the backs of the foolish ants, and now seeks to take away all the ants rights to make sure that anymore toiling from this point forward benefits the grasshoppers and the grasshoppers alone.

When reports like that come out, I can’t help but think about those folks in the Middle East right now, whom after years and years of oppressive disparity between the haves and the have nots forced them into the streets to topple these regimes. What would happen if all the “ants” of this country would follow their lead? Would our government (Dems, Repubs, Tea-Baggers, Independents, etc) go quietly into that gentle night? Or would our government act against its people, much like the Libyan whack job has done, bringing in outside mercenaries to kill its own people. Before you answer that, let the Deputy AG of Indiana do that for you. Oh, and you know he only got “removed” from office for stating the grasshoppers views against the foolish ants in public. Those are for closed doors meeting only. I doubt he will have trouble finding another job…perhaps one with Koch Industries, Inc.?

What ever your beliefs are, what ever your views on government, how it should be run, what it should fund, etc are, YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THEN AN ANT. If we want real change in this country, we need to take it back. In taking it back, this means no more corporate & non profit money used in campaign donations. If you want to run for public office, then you need to have lived under the poverty level for one year and survived without resorting to illegal activities, loan sharks, or your mother’s basement. You must be involved in a charitable foundation, and have done volunteer work either in health-care, homeless, etc. Oh, and churches that spew political mantras and sway voters based on beliefs rather then common sense, need to be taxed-an untapped revenue source perhaps?

Its like I told two very out of touch, wealthy, pair of devoted Christians who thought that they should not have to fund the pensions of civil servants or be for workers rights because “it was not their fault that they lost their retirements because of bad investments.” When I countered with “Well, these pension boards are typically run by political appointees, whom are just following the no holds barred reckless banking systems, which caused Wall Street to fail in the first place, yet our tax money bailed them out…how is that any different? These are real people with real lives here, not some corporate executive who can’t shell out bonuses in the millions of dollars for bad and unscrupulous investing behavior…”

I knew this reasoning was lost on them. So I put it into terms they could understand-“Did your savior not say, and I quote, It is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to get into heaven…?” “How many of those “representatives” that you think are doing such a great job cutting the programs for the poor, yet inflating the benefits of the rich are going to be standing right next to you at the pearly gates? In your belief’s I may be going to hell, but I am going to have a great time being there to laugh at you and all your ilk…” I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. That will be my heaven.

But then again, as an ant, probably not. An ant can only hope that it has enough to survive, while watching the grasshoppers play about and not suffer any of the consequences. That is the true America.

2 thoughts on “The Ant and the Grasshopper”

  1. I believe most governments worldwide would be really tempted to get that huge can of RAID and kill any and all unruly ants. (Think Kent State, Kadaffhi or any G20 summit). In spite of this, I feel there will always be ants and grasshoppers. Always. What we really need is to become those nasty stinging fire-ants and go do something about the bedbugs (lawyers/lobbyists) and political pundit anteaters that spew negative rhetoric/ use the loopholes in the system, create ant-class warfare and swoop in afterwards to suck our collective anthills dry

  2. Wow! I appreciate this kind of insight. Last night I talked to Bob on the phone and told him, “I’m so tired of talking politics anymore. I give up! I can tell you this… I SAW ALL OF THIS COMING! I knew that one day all those people living on credit would destroy any sort of personal financial responsibility. And when those people destroyed personal financial responsibility, then it would be near IMPOSSIBLE for the personal financially responsible people to get anything for their efforts/suffering/forethought. I SAW THIS! I KNEW IT WAS COMING!”

    I’m so tired of complaining or restating the obvious fallacies in our politics, country, world, or species. This is just humanity at its’ worst, and no amount of voting (fair or corrupt) is going to change anything. I have (until further notice) stopped voting and stopped caring about politics. It is no longer by the people OR for the people. The voice of the people is completely hoarse or falling on deaf ears.

    As far as I’m concerned, I’m in personal survival mode at this point! What goes on above me is out of my control. All I can do is steer around it as best I can and hope I don’t hit any ice bergs along the way. I have reverted to the personal politics of the survival of Chad (the me – not the country).

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