Tuesday, July 31, 2007

HOW TO CATCH A WILD PIG

This was told to me by Lowell E. Hedges, a retired professor. He was taught this little lesson by a young student who was a refugee from Central America. There is a lesson here not just for the Philippines but for the American Congress.

How to Catch a Wild Pig
First you find out where the wild pigs are roaming and feeding. You then put some corn out in an open field. Soon the pigs will come to eat the free corn. You keep putting out this free corn everyday. More wild pigs will come. After the pigs get used to your free corn, you put up a length of fence along one side of the open field. Soon the pigs will get accustomed to the fence. You keep giving them the free corn. Later you put up another section of fence at right angles to the first. You keep giving them the free corn. The pigs get used to the second fence. After awhile you put up a third section of fence at right angles to the second section. You now have a U-shaped fenced open area. You keep giving them free corn. Then you put another section of fence with a gate in it, making a closed area except for the gate. You keep giving them free corn. Now, the pigs are no longer out in the woods, working to find their own food. They get accustomed to the fenced area with the open gate. Then, one day you slam shut the gate trapping the wild pigs inside. They quickly lose their ability to find their wild food and become totally dependent on your free corn. They can not survive without you.

This is how communism and socialism works. They give you “free corn” until you are dependent on them. Until you lose your ability to support yourself. They rob you of your free spirit and your self respect. You become their domesticated worker pigs.

I see pictures of Che Quevara and hear socialist / communist propagandist all around Dumaguete City, especially at the universities. The “free corn” is very seductive. Communism / Socialism offer the illusion of ultimate equality, “free” medical care, and “free” homes and food. Marx said, “To each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs” The implication is that we would all be taken care of by the state. The sad reality is that great promise has never been fulfilled. Many have tried; all have failed.
With any form of government someone has to be in charge. Someone has to have the power to distribute the benefits. Those with power will eventually abuse it. They become the new elite. While millions wait in line for their free bread; the elite have theirs delivered. While millions live in no rent apartments; the elite have no rent homes and a dacha (summer cottage) on the Black Sea (Russia) or the Isle of Pines (Cuba). While millions wait for that doctor’s appointment; the elite have their own physician.
There is no difference between communism / socialism and any other corrupt government system. They all have “haves” and “have nots”, the privileged rich and the desperately poor. If that is true, why then is democracy preferable over communism? Simple, democracy and capitalism have one advantage over all other systems of government. The word is “CHANGE”. There is the possibility to change and improve. Not just change and improve the government but change and improve individually. There is social and economic mobility. The “have nots” can become the “haves”.
Rather than hunger for the false promise of socialism and communism, seek to change and improve the system you already have. You have the building blocks here to create the greatest nation in the Far East. Look around you. You have great climate, good resources, strategic location, hard working intelligent people, and an inordinate ability to adapt and change.
Are there problems to be solved here? Of course there are, but I believe the Philippine people not only can solve those problems but are well on the way to solving them now. Name another nation that has put a sitting President in jail for corruption. Many countries need to, but only the Philippines has actually done it. That is not a mark of shame but a badge of courage and commitment.
I believe in you, my Philippines; it is time for you to believe in yourself.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! That was very well written and interesting! *Standing ovation*

Mark Baker said...

First of all James, allow me to thank you for your service to our country. What an amazing, yet simple anology that succienctly sums-up liberalism/socialism/communism (all inbred cousins that overlap and grow out of the former in a insidious continueum). I envy your service in Special Forces and fear that their are those in government who are actively looking to emasculate SF (and its unsurpassed expertise in CI ops for a unbalanced support of CT ops), this is dangerously short-sighted and will leave America very vaulnerable and wweaker. I am an Air Force veteran, Strategic Air Command (SAC) to be percise (and we were indeed percise, deadly and ever-ready to destroy America's enemies on very short notice), but we were stood-down in '92 as you know to what see as a nieve response to the fall of the USSR, and others (like myself) see as a part of a planned dismantling of essential American defenses. Rally fellow SF (vets and AD) to be aware of moves to reduce or eleminate SF in the future. Be vigilant in bthis regard. Cordially, your bother-in-arms, Mark Baker.
www.bodegabayguy.blogspot.com

Laura Lee - Grace Explosion said...

Great post.

Unknown said...

Thanks great story.

Of course the socialists already know this and the pigs no longer care.

Anonymous said...
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Kojak said...

I thank you all for your generous praise....but this was not original with me. I wrote the article but the heart of the column came from another source. I just felt the message was important enough it needed to be shared.
Socialism and communism are very seductive but the reality is not very nice. They promise much but deliver little. The tyranny just has a different name.