My gentle friends - and I have many - consistently point
out to me, as I trowel on the vituperative when speaking of liberals, that my
harsh words and dire judgments will not convert anyone to my ideas. Their favorite phrase is that old proverb, “You
will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." (For what it's worth, when we were putting fly traps in the stables, we didn't use honey for bait. We used poop. There's got to be a metaphor in there, somewhere.)
Humpf.
First, when I’m going on about liberals, I’m not talking
about flies – well, perhaps the larvae of flies, but not the adult creatures.
Second, in my 50-odd years of debating with liberals (my
first fist fight with a pro-crime, i.e. “anti-gun” advocate was in the 4th
grade) I have just tired of pussyfooting around with ‘em. They’re breeding faster than we can convert ‘em,
anyway. I do, honestly, make an effort
to educate, convince, and convert, but I’m not going to live long enough to
convert most of these dips, so I’m more concerned with strengthening the moral
rectitude of those who already agree with me.
Finally, I submit that the whole honey vs. vinegar tactic
is precisely what got us where we are, in the first place. For example, “You have no right to the
property of other people,” is sort of a vinegary statement to a measure of our countrymen,
while, “Vote for me and we’ll smash the rich and take their stuff,” is taken as
a honey-sort of statement. When the
people in Jamestown said if you don’t work, you don’t eat, it was the
definitive vinegar idea, whereas Louis Blanc’s socialist mantra, “From each
according to his ability, to each according to his need,” [from Wikipedia. I’d always thought it was Marx.] has always been the honeysong of the looter’s
soul. When Saint Barack said he’d tax
the rich into extinction and give free phones, free Bubble Up, and rainbow stew
to everyone who voted for him, he was spreadin’ around that honey.
And look at the all the flies it attracted.
(Ironically, the value of introducing maggots to an open
wound for the prevention of gangrene has been known for centuries. You see, maggots only eat dead tissue, which
prevents the buildup of the bacteria that cause gangrene. We revile maggots, but they are actually
useful, and are probably the only reason for the existence of their
parents. America, in 2013, has a number
of ghastly, open wounds, but the maggots that have been drawn to the smell of
blood are of a species that eat live tissue.
In a very real sense, our nation is indulging in a frenzy of
autocannibalism. [or, in the case of
Pelosi, Feinstein, Schumer, et all, semi-autocannibalism].)
Rebsarge
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read. I agree with much of your logic. I have two things that I ponder often. First, did we abort the person sent by God to lead us around this mud puddle? Second, believing that God has a fantastic sense of humor, is He using it now to get our attention? I believe He's in control of all of this and if we, as a nation, would start listening to Him, things just might improve. A dark night often inspires a return to faith and prayer.
ReplyDeleteMJ, It is not only possible, I think it's certain that humanity has been deprived of much value through abortion. Add to that war, murder, pointless famine and curable pestilence, and it's quite a list. It's also certain that a few real bad actors have gone up the spout in the same ways, but those have always been a very tiny percentage of the population.
ReplyDeleteIf God means us to have a savior, he'll send us another, but only up to a point. The Scriptures tell us that He tires of striving with us, and will eventually allow us to exercise our apparently limitless capacity for stupidity.
As for the dark night phenemenon, you are absolutely correct. One of my favorite proverbs about this was quoted by John Kennedy, in remarks to members of the First Armored Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia, November 26, 1962: “Many years ago, according to the story, there was found in a sentry box in Gibraltar a poem which said:
God and the soldier, all men adore
In time of danger and not before
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
Thanks for writing!