I've seen this story many times in my email in-box. But this is the best version I've seen. It was found on "The Daily Objectivist" web site: http://dailyobjectivist.com and is reprinted here in slightly edited form by permission.I'm including this because it is one of the best stories to illustrate what has happened in this country (and the world) in recent years as the power seekers further enslave us every day by using such spurious "causes" as they have used here to rip the ant off for everything he has earned, give it to the ant, who will not earn it for himself. Who has not even gained the skills necessary to maintain what the power seekers have looted for him. And what does the ant give in return? His vote to keep the power seekers in power.
Many people criticize people such as I for "simplifying" things. But I criticize them for "complicating" them so that most people cannot understand them. This story is, of course, a simplification that allows all to see the rape of humanity that is being performed by the power seekers in our government, as well as governments all over the world in the name of "equalization of outcome" rather than "equalization of opportunity." Simplification it may be. But truth it is.
RAY THOMA$
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER: ORIGINAL VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
CURRENT AMERICAN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS Evening News to tell a concerned Dan Rather that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Reagan summers. Richard Gephardt exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity Act" retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of grasshoppers and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal hearing officers that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on Thursdays between 1:30 and 3PM. The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are showing Bill Clinton standing before a wildly applauding group of Democrats announcing that a new era of "fairness" has dawned in America.
And that's the end of the story. The ant will probably die in the snow, having been subjected to the future the grasshopper earned for himself while the grasshopper enjoys the advantages the ant had earned, but which were stolen from him by the government and given to the grasshopper, who did not earn them. A "new era of fairness" has dawned in America, but not for those who work and earn their way. It has dawned for those who do not, but who continue to vote themselves "bread and circuses" at the expense of those who do, and for those power seekers who use them, and their votes, to stay in power so they can run things.
Some say when reading this story, that "America was built by those who help others." I say that is not true. America was built by those who earned their own way, not demanding that others support them because they "need" it. It is they who built this country, and it is those who demand an unearned share of what these people have earned as their right simply because they have not earned it, who are destroying America, inch by inch.
The first thing you must do to help in this fight is to keep yourself informed as to things the power seekers don't want you to know.
To do that, join my "Forced Altruism List" by going to: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/forcedaltruism and following the instructions to get a daily update on what's happening and a place where you can express your own gripes and frustrations by posting them to the entire List.
You may also read the current issue of the monthly online web based newsletter, "Beyond Common Sense," by going to: http:www.angelfire.com/co2/beyondcommonsense.
If you like what you see, you may subscribe to the Announcement List that notifies you when a new issue comes out by going to: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/beyondcommonsense and following the instructions.
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