July 29, 2009
LESSONS FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Specifically the episode, "Button, Button".
A mysterious stranger shows up at a couple's house and gives them a box with a button on it. He tells them that if they push the button, two things will happen: they will get $200,000, and someone "whom you don't know" will die.
After agonizing over the morality of the decision for days, the wife finally pushes the button.
The stranger comes back, hands over the cash, and takes the box. The wife asks what will happen to it. The stranger looks at her and says it will be given to someone "whom you don't know".
Asking the government to pass a law for your own financial advantage (like, say, health care) is pushing the button. You figure it's safe, since you don't know the person who will have to absorb the negative consequences of your decision.
Problem is, someone else is pushing a different button that will screw you over because they don't know you.
The common factor is a government that's passing out buttons like Halloween candy, safe in the knowledge that they'll never be the button's victims.
Maybe it's time to shut down the box factory.
Throwing tea in it's gears is a good start.
E-Mail Me (Harvey)
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog2.mu.nu/cgi/trackback.cgi/264715