THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER… Two Different Versions. Two Different Morals…
OLD VERSION… The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, buildinghis house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warmand well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION… The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all
summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fooland 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 he is cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing,
“We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. President Obama condemns the ant and blames Presidents Bush and Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti- Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug- related incident, and the house, now bandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood. The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
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Beth Abernathie
Thank you SO much for sharing in print the grasshopper and the ant modern version – I am sharing it now:) Happy Thanksgiving!! I would love to meet you guys when is your next live at Kaldi’s -
Jennifer J
We all need to send this message to Washington!
Simon
Here is another tale about a grasshopper and an ant.
The “grasshopper” grew up in a lawyer’s family. He always had what he needed, and though his Dad worked, the family had plenty of free time for leisure. The grasshopper’s family had a private plane and a beautiful home. When the country went to war, the young grasshopper got a college deferment because his family sent him to business school. He grew up and worked as an investment banker making plenty of money.
The ant never had much time for leisure. He never received much schooling and ran away from home at an early age. He joined the army, and when his country went to war he fought on foreign soil. He participated in several big battles but eventually was badly wounded and had to be sent home. He could only receive a full pension from the government if his leg was amputated, but he chose to keep his leg and worked hard to pay his own way in life. Because of his disability he found it difficult to find work and had to lie about his damaged leg in order to get a job. He finally found employment and worked very hard to prove himself and provide for his family. He worked 60 hours a week until he was in his 70s, but because he was an unskilled laborer, he was never able to amass any savings. When he died, he and his wife lived in a tiny rental house with just 4 rooms and no bathroom. He never had a car, indoor toilet or a telephone. Despite the fact that he had fought for his country and worked harder than most grasshoppers, he died virtually penniless.
The “ant” was my grandfather. He fought in WWI and was severely injured at the second battle of Ypres. He survived and was denied a pension because he refused to have his arm amputated. He worked ungodly hours making steel even during the depression. He never asked for charity and would not have accepted it. When he died on his 80th birthday he was virtually penniless. Until the day he died he had to use an outside toilet that was freezing in the winter.
The “grasshopper” could be any number of middle-class/wealthy right wingers who delude themselves into believing that those with less money are undeserving. They invariably think they have money because they are superior, even when they work relatively few hours at cushy jobs, while the working class “ants” bear the biggest burden in time of war and do hard labor with little pay. A recent obscene example of this attitude is the incompetent “bonus babies” on Wall Street.
The moral of this tale is that hard work and sacrifice don’t always coincide with prosperity. Moreover, the prosperous are not always the hardest workers in this world.
Thorstein
Thanks for your story Simon. While the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper makes a great point about personal responsibility, what good is long-term honest hard work for the masses, when its fruits can be wiped out in a matter of hours by corrupt, amoral lawmakers and financiers?
If the poor are stigmatized for having cell phones and nice rims, why shouldn’t the rich be stigmatized for owning islands and the courts?
Take pride that you come from moral, hard-working people, no matter how poor they may have been.
Hope
These are both great stories and so true.
Thank you
Gale Stovall
First – Life is not fair. No matter what the politicians do, the human race will never reach equality? In the United States for the last 200 years their has never in history any where in the world been an environment so conducive to allow a person to excel, to reach their maximum potential. The avenues of opportunity, the ability to obtain an education, the resources to educate your self, the chance of operating your own business or going to work for a company and moving up through the ranks of that business is limited only by your work ethic, desire, determination and sacrifice. The opportunities for excellence have never been greater. No country in the world has produced as many rags to riches stories as this country has. The work ethic of the American people is what propelled this country to greatness. That work ethic has produced a desire for the parents of previous generation to provide a better life for their children. Each generation has provided a easer and better life for their children until we have raised a generation of children that expect every thing for nothing. The progressive socialist, through social justice has produced multi generations of welfare recipients that thank their existence should be provided for them from the government. I fear that we are perpetuating our own demise. We have been blessed in this country we have been given so much for so long that we now expect every thing for nothing.