We\u2019ve all heard the \u2018frog in the kettle\u2019 story. \u00a0Frog in water. \u00a0Water heats slowly. \u00a0Frog doesn\u2019t realize water is getting hotter. \u00a0Frog sits there thinking all is right with the world. \u00a0Frog boils to death. \u00a0Lesson: beware subtle changes that lead to destruction.<\/p>\n
Now, I receive this email from a reader that\u2019s had me thinking for a few days. \u00a0Here\u2019s most of it:<\/p>\n
However, let me start with the term \u201caccommodation.\u201d\u00a0 My fear that our country has been employing a \u201cLeap Forward, Hop Back\u201d strategy with most contemporary issues is illustrated perfectly in this health care debate.\u00a0 The strategy is to make an absurd leap forward that is very difficult for a large portion of the population to swallow, and then to take a small hop back to \u201cmake up for it.\u201d\u00a0 The long term impact of this is the rapid accumulation of the forward motion and the acceptance of it by the American people under the guise that those in power have \u201ccompromised\u201d by taking the small hop backwards.\u00a0 What they forget is the the initial large step was no compromise in the first place.\u00a0 It is worse than the old frog-in-boiling-water lesson.\u00a0 You know the old wisdom: if you place a frog in boiling water it will jump out immediately, but if you place it in cool water and gradually increase the temperature, it will happily boil to death.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While others have applied this old adage to the current debate, I think it is actually worse than what it seems.\u00a0 The \u201cleap forward, hop back\u201d is even more devious than the gradual-temperature-increase.\u00a0 Instead of slowly boiling the frog so that he doesn\u2019t realize it, this strategy is like raising the heat on the frog rapidly and just before it gets to the point of jumping out, drawing the heat back a little.\u00a0 In this way, the frog not only boils to death without complaint, but it actually periodically thanks you for those brief moments of cool relief that you so generously offered.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think this is also what is not being understood in some modern debates\u2026I think people are starting to get wise to this trick and as such are growing less inclined to compromise.\u00a0 Especially as often nowadays compromise defined above is of the \u201cWell instead of getting everything I want and you getting nothing, I\u2019ll only get half of what I want (and you still get nothing)\u201d variety.\u00a0 Everyone is starting to realize the compromises are still leading us in the direction we don\u2019t want to go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s not always the fact that we don\u2019t recognize the water is\u00a0getting\u00a0warmer. \u00a0We do. \u00a0We just feel powerless to do anything about it. \u00a0So if you are a traditional oriented Christian American (hopefully in that order), or more specifically Catholic American (again, hopefully in that order), then it isn\u2019t hard to see that our nation is heading down paths that are incompatible with any Christian vision for a just and righteous society.<\/p>\n
There is something to be said for a mentality that says we should be thankful for whatever table scraps are thrown our way. \u00a0That\u2019s the lesson of those who become beaten down, even if they don\u2019t realize it. \u00a0As much as we think we\u2019re bravely resisting the\u00a0principalities\u00a0and powers of this\u00a0present\u00a0darkness, are we? \u00a0Are we really resisting, or are we just happy to win the\u00a0occasional\u00a0battle, appealing to some soteriological triumph that excuses us for the lost wars as we travel this sod?<\/p>\n
It makes you wonder. \u00a0I know that Mel Gibson\u2019s Braveheart <\/i>is fodder for historians, as well it should be. \u00a0Though its take on history is seldom any worse than\u00a0what\u00a0I see coming out of our modern\u00a0institutions\u00a0of higher learning. Nonetheless, while stretching the historical facts, there are some good, meaningful themes worth considering. \u00a0One is that William Wallace must shake up the Scots in their resistance against the English throne. \u00a0In one of his many\u00a0monologues\u00a0 he actually tells them to stop being happy to scramble for whatever\u00a0table scraps\u00a0is thrown them. \u00a0They have a God given right to the full banquet feast. <\/p>\n
Sometimes I think we have long since discarded any such talk of God given right to [fill in the blank]. \u00a0We\u2019re content to await the coming eschaton and declare that to be our main priority. \u00a0Of course we should continue to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and do such\u00a0things\u00a0 \u00a0And we can resist forces that stand in our way to do such things. \u00a0But somewhere, it\u2019s as if we think we can lose one war entirely, or at least suffer setback after setback, and all will still be fine with the world. <\/p>\n
Perhaps the willingness we have to accept\u00a0table scraps\u00a0thrown out way, to celebrate a step\u00a0forward\u00a0when we know there will be two backward steps accompany it, that demonstrates just how much fight has left us, and just how defeatist we\u2019ve truly become. Maybe it is time to listen to the folks who say no more compromise, no more table scraps. Just a thought as I read through and pondered a new take on the old kettle.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all heard the \u2018frog in the kettle\u2019 story. \u00a0Frog in water. \u00a0Water heats slowly. \u00a0Frog doesn\u2019t realize water is getting hotter. \u00a0Frog sits there thinking all is right with the world. \u00a0Frog boils to death. \u00a0Lesson: beware subtle changes that lead to destruction. Now, I receive this email from a reader that\u2019s had me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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