Forwarded to me via email. Enjoy:THE OLD 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 the ant is 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.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
For more information see: How do ants pass the winter?
To learn more about the ant in the photo see: door-maker ant (Stenamma alas).
Here are links to Aesop's Fables: The Ant and the Grasshopper, Online Collection - Selected Fables
NOW- THE MODERN 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 the ant is 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 , 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.' Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant 's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry 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.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
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2 comments:
Dear Anonymous,
I chose not to post your version of this fable. I did this for several reasons and would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the points of the original post:
1) Many things have changed since the time of Aesop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables).
2) The moral of the fable- "be responsible for yourself" is age-old wisdom that can not be denied.
3) The current social, political and media examples provided in the posting run contrary to the moral of the fable.
4) If you want the world to be a better place- Be careful how you vote in 2010.
Note: If you create and sign in with a blogger account, your comments will be immediately posted to this blog- all anonymous comments are subject to moderation.
J.N. Kish
Proverbs 6:6-11
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest -- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
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