I noticed that in last night's final comments before the House, Pelosi quoted from the constitution that "....all men are created equal and have inalienable rights....". If I am not mistaken, that is "not" from the constitution, it is from the "Preamble" to the constitution and is thus "not" part of the law. How many of our public school graduates picked up on this point? Now what do I mean by, "Monkey See...Monkey Wants...". It is just a basic human trait that if someone else has it hen they want it too. The problem is that when this concept is taken to the limit all kinds of really bad things start to happen. Before I really get into this one, I want to tell a short story.
Any of you who are college graduates had to take Philosophy as a requirement. Most thought it was a waste of time and so do I, but it did allow me to learn a couple of new things. I was interested in the Philosophy of India and have had since, several good Indian friends and have traveled there extensively. The point, in a nut shell, is that in the Hindu Philosophy, they seemed to be occupied with contentment and the avoidance of anguish. Seems OK to me. What they say is that all sadness and unhappiness is the direct result of "desire". That is, the desire of something that you can not have. They also make a point of the fact that by getting the thing that you desire does "not" make you happy. From this whole concept, they propose that to be happy, you have to avoid having desires that can't be attained. One of the easiest ways to avoid excess desire is to not even know that the object exists. I think that is why many people growing up on a farm claim that they had a very happy childhood. Following me here? As a kid when your mother said that you could not have something and meant it, you went without the thing and were happy. On the other hand, if your parents were wishy washy when they said you could not have something, you might go on days or the rest of your life unhappy because you still felt that you deserved what ever. The world is full of different people who have different amounts of this or that and it won't change. If you have a problem with that, you are going to be an unhappy person. This is at the foundation of much of the Indian Philosophy and it is the main reason that such a poor country could be happy and passive in the face of all these differences. Now where is this leading?
Let's start with cars. Here in the USA we have all kinds and prices of cars. You can buy a used car for as little as $100 or as high as a million dollars. Now if you wanted a car that cost a million dollars and you couldn't afford it, then you might be unhappy. Do you think the guy with the million dollar car is happier than you because he has the million dollar car? I would not be so sure. I know that I owned a lot of $100 cars in my life and was glad at the time to have had them. I was happy. Many think that back in Henry Ford's time that all we had was the Model T to chose from, but at the time there were still cars that would have been worth an equivalent terms a million dollars. Anyone could build a car worth any amount and that act should not cause a social uprising should it? Well it has.
Now take medical care. I remember when the doctor in South Africa did the first heart transplant on a human. What did you think at the time? For most it was some kind of freak event that most thought should never have occurred. It was like a car company coming out with a V12 two million dollar car. I could not afford the two million dollar car and thus had no desire for it. Now the heart transplant. It was worth about two million dollars at the time and now do I want it? No, but many seem to "desire" one and are very unhappy when they find out that they can't afford it. When they were kids, their mother's told them that they could not have it and they went out happy to play. What has changed here? Is this a case of "Monkey see--Monkey Wants". I hear stories from the family where some aunt died because the family could not afford this or that operation. Those are not quite the facts. The fact is that with the operation, the aunt would most likely live another year with hospital care. Because the family had a house full of kids to feed, they could not as responsible parents take the food from their kids mouths and give it to the doctor for the operation. The aunt knew the rules before hand and died happy. Today it is just the opposite, if the aunt did not get the operation she would die very unhappy. She expected the sheriff to go over to the neighbor's home and take their money by force and use it to pay the doctor so that she could live in the hospital at great expense another year. What we seem to missing in the society today is the roll of the responsible parent who says and means it that, "you can't have it". If all parents were this responsible, us kids would all then be happy instead of winning around still wanting what we know we can't have.
Life with the car example, there are always going to be newer and better cars and we all know that all of us can't be driving around in the most expensive cars. It won't happen because it is "impossible". You could also apply this to homes. I have said for many years that the USA is "house poor". On the farm we used to look down on neighbors who were "horse poor". They had more horses than they either needed or could afford. We did the same thing with homes due to a combination of government policy and our own immaturity "Monkey See....Monkey Want". In the process we as a nation borrowed on the equity in our homes until we had no net worth. When home prices went down many found themselves "under water" and don't to this day understand why. Do you know any families who are "snowmobile poor"? I know a few and I don't plan on helping them dig themselves out.
Try education and college degrees. This is just the latest of the "Monkey See....Monkey Wants". Is the government helping to make this situation better or worse? I know I don't have to answer that one. You know. Look around and see how many people seem to be happy? I am not one to place blame on anyone except the individual who allows themselves to be unhappy or a victim which is about the same thing, but the efficiency of advertisers on the brains of many of us has turned us into Monkeys.
Monkey See....Monkey Wants
