It is not widely known that Aesop (floruit circa 550 B.C.), a visionary writer if there ever was one, composed two versions of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. The traditional version used to be very widely known — you’ll see in a moment why it is out of favor today — and it can be outlined briefly:
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.
AdvertisementCome 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
A friend recently sent me that pithy summary and supplemented it with Aesop’s secret version for the 21st-century. It’s a bit longer, but — in addition to demonstrating Aesop’s extraordinary powers of divination — it is a Tale for Our Time. My friend did not say where he uncovered this version, but I am sure you will appreciate its pertinence to our situation today:
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.’
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant ‘s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group curse God for the grasshopper’s sake.
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.
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.
Is it any wonder Aesop is rarely taught anymore?
I saw a South African version of this a couple of years ago…same outcome. Vote em out office!!!!
“MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.”
Many formally so-called middle of the road voters have learned their lesson. This may mean an overall shift of minimally five percentage point advantage for Republican candidates in 2010. If this turns out to be case, the Democrats are going to be slaughtered on Election Day. The deciding difference is the growing importance of the alternative media. It may soon be regarded as the mainstream.
Excellent and true update of Aesop.
Republicans expect voters to flock to them as the lesser of two evils. I have often held my nose (John McCain’t) while voting straight ticket Republican for the past two decades, but no longer. Repubs are going to have to earn their votes from me. I’ve had it with Democrat “Lite”. No more George Bush “compassionate” giveaway programs. No more bank bailouts. No more conspiring with Democrats on amnesty bills for illegal aliens. No more open borders. No more big government.
Bloggers, talk radio hosts, tea partiers and town hallers have opened the door, cleared off the stage, turned on the lights and put the microphone in place. It’s time to stop shivering, crawl out of your hole and speak up, Republicans. What makes you different? Why should we trust you? Have you grown a “set” yet? Town hallers and tea partiers have the guts to confront the left…what about you? How about a few more cries of “YOU LIE” from the house floor? Afraid of the “state-run media”? Tell them to go to hell. Ronald Reagan bypassed the media and talked straight talk to the American people. We’re waiting for you, Repubs….and it better be good.
More likely senario: The lazy grasshopper goes to a homeless shelter (which is paid for by the ants very reasonable taxes). The ant claims to be a Christian, so he should help his fellow creature. Maybe the ant will have to give up his summer cottage on the lake, or his second car that he doesn’t need, but that’s OK. The grasshopper will NOT take over the ant’s house, but he should be allowed to survive in a country where some are doing just fine. Let’s find a common ground PLEASE!!!
I don’t know what la-la land you’re pretending to be in, “Get Real”, but it’s obviously not Obamaland. Taxes…reasonable? Homeless shelter?…America’s entitlement class wants mortgages with no verifiable income required, new cars, high-end electronics and restaurant food…at taxpayers expense. Christian….yes…but I’ll let private charities operate the homeless shelters, so that folks who really need the help get it…not lazy, physically able young people or illegal aliens. As far as the home on the lake and the second car….people who have worked hard for what they have should not be forced to sell their possessions to feed idle grasshoppers.
You’d fit in much better in Cuba, “Get Real”.
There’s a similar modification of the Three Little Pigs story that ends up with the pig that built the brick house killed by the other two as a righteous example of redistributive change. Three Little Pigs meets Animal Farm.
republicans went to far and got spanked in 06. now the democrats think this is a mandate to do whatever they think is proper in their minds, remember, a fool is wise in his own eyes. saltherring: you’re coming off a bit fringe and pre 06. the Indians in the 1800′s thought, we can just get rid of these pesky white people, until they found out they were like the sands at the beach. same same, shoe has dropped on the other foot. we have to deal with people as what they are. we aren’t a colony of ants and i don’t think Aesops fable is about racism. we have to deal with illegal immigrants no matter what, and though we don’t see ourselves as an American race, it is a mindset. we have to train people in it, just like going to school and taking a class. Team America!
Great story!
a couple minor typos though:
– “Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group curse God for the grasshopper’s sake.”
should read:
– “Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group ask God to curse the ant for the grasshopper’s sake.”
Also;
– “Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act”
should read:
– “Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Discrimination Act”
Other than that, Great Read!
There is also the Ayn Rand version:
After the law is passed, he Ant, realizing he can’t win, resolves to ensure that there is nothing for the government to take.
The Ant sells all his possessions and moves most of the money offshore. He then quits his job and burns down his house, taking the last of his money and moving to a small island that has no extradition treaties with the United States.
With nothing to give the grasshopper and no story left to push, the leftists in the government and the media forget about the grasshopper as he is no longer a useful tool.
The grasshopper, after a failed book deal and a few years attempting to regain the spotlight, is found dead in a drug related incident in a government project apartment, and the lot where the ant’s burned down house was is left to grow weeds as one by one the neighbor ants abandon their houses and flee the country as taxes rise to punitive levels. Eventually, the Economy collapses resulting in civil war and anarchy.
A few years after this the Ant and his fellow hard working bugs return and rebuild, re-founding the country as a unabashed capitalist nation with alterations to the Constitution to make it illegal to interfere in or tax the hard work of Ants or other bugs.
Moral of the story: DON’T TRY AND DRIVE OUT THE HARD WORKERS, YOU MIGHT JUST GET WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
Best tale of his is that of the Scorpion and the Frog. Sums us humanity and human nature.
The complete destruction of the ants (bourgeoisie) a necessary step on the road to tyranny.
I posted the same thing on my blog. However I added the following paragraph:
When asked at a press conference, President Obama expressed his concern over the situation. Acknowledging that he did not know all of the facts, but was sure that the grasshopper was a victim due to his pigmentation.
Thanks to Jim Quinn of Warroom.com who originally wrote the updated version of the ant and the grasshopper a few years back – but rarely gets the credit.
Check him out.
In the PC version of the fable the grasshopper goes to the ant’s door and asks to be let in. They comply because they worked hard enough to warm and feed everyone. The only thing the grasshopper really learned was he can depend on the ants’ charity.
Great cautionary tale. I too thought of a tale when Wilson called out to Obama that he lied. It may have been the wrong action in the wrong place but it was the right thing to do to focus on the inaccuracies of Obama’s statements. Quite frankly, I’d rewrite the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes with Obama the emperor and Wilson the child who calls out that the emperor is naked. Wilson took the dressing off of Obama’s comments and exposed them for the world to see – naked lies made about a plan that he is pushing on America. There was no better place to for Wilson to make his comment – he cut Obama at the knees – in spite of the main stream medias attempt to spin, spin, spin. Yeah, Joe.
Funny, but you are no Aesop.
Actually the story ends with the grasshopper eating the ant.
this is more accurate reflection of Nature, especially Human.
I can predict how the 2010 election ends. The Democrats will get even more votes because there are more grasshoppers than ants and everybody has one vote no matter how he contributes. This process will continue until there are no more ants.
British version here.
More on Aesop here. Perhaps those fables are true…
This Ant/Grasshopper thing has been done to death although this is at least pretty clever.
Why don’t you delve into the far more intriguing “Dog in a Manger” story, which neatly tells why the world hates those who can and do extend a helping hand, like America.
Biting the hand that feeds, and even going so far as destroying the means of producing that sustenance, out of hatred of their slavery/dependence, is what this fable is about.
I’d add an update.
The gets kicked out of his house but takes his laptop with him and starts a Movement. A week later, the ant announces a million ant march on DC. Not only ants show up, but busy-bees and wasps too. They are all carrying “Don’t Tread on Me” shirts and flags.
Of course the SRM yells “Specieist” despite the fact that Uncle Tom Grasshoppers join the ants and bees to overrun them all. They rebuild a new house for the first ant via voluntary charity and set up a trust fund for his young offspring’s education due to the public unionized school is run by grasshoppers.