Posted on 03/06/2006 9:43:31 AM PST by found_one
One of the first words I learned from the New Testament when I was a kid was “hypocrite.” It seems like Jesus was always saying “thou hypocrite” to someone or another, kind of mad-like. I wasn’t sure what he had against these hypocrites and what that word meant, but grownups said it was because the religious leaders of his day were hypocrites.
I asked Daddy what a hypocrite was and he said it was someone who was kind of a fake.
So Jesus didn’t like fakes and he told them so to their faces, even when they were powerful, important people. I guessed these were people who would pretend to be all pious and phony-smiley, but down inside they weren’t good at all. Jesus could see into their hearts and knew they were evil.
I like to imagine what Jesus would say to powerful phonies today.
Speaking of phonies, I once actually sat in a book store and scanned Hillary’s “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” from cover to cover.
My main reason for doing this was to see if Hillary mentioned anywhere which country in Africa used this proverb.
It seemed strange to me, partly because my job, as well as my educational background, takes me across cultural and linguistic barriers daily. I have read and heard a fair number of proverbs in various languages, most of which hark back hundreds, even thousands, of years, and the word “village” was something I had never encountered in a proverb. It also didn’t sound like a proverb to me for other reasons, notably:
1—The function of proverbs is normally to admonish, reprove, remind, teach or warn someone of a universally recognizable fact or condition.
2— Proverbs are almost always intended for an older person to use to teach a younger, less experienced, person, and hence are passed down from generation to generation. A saying that has no obvious teaching function would not be in use and would die out.
3—Because of their universal nature, proverbs generally do not vary much from one culture to another, so that a proverb in one language, even one not even remotely related to another, will usually have some counterpart in another.
4—Proverbs more often than not relate to rural or life or work, not usually life in towns. Let’s take some examples:
Spanish: Cria cuervos y te sacarán los ojos (raise crows and they’ll peck your eyes out.) This is a warning (1), most likely from an older experienced person (2), reminding us “be careful of the company you keep” (3), and it relates to the countryside, where crows are found (4).
German: Wer mit Hunden zu Bette geht wacht mit Flöhen auf (he who goes to bed with dogs wakes up with fleas). This is a warning and admonition (1), most likely from an older to a younger person (2); we also say this in English and other languages (3), and it relates to an animal that can be found in the countryside (4). Russian: Жить жизнь—не поле пройти (zhit’ zhizn’–ne pole proiti, life is not a walk through the field). This too has all the qualifications listed above.
Latin: Aquila non capit musca (Meaning literally, the eagle does not catch the fly, or in other words, don’t waste your time going after small fry, or when someone insults you: “consider the source”). This one also qualifies on all counts.
My all-time favorite is this tongue-in-cheek Italian one: Fidare è bene, non fidare è meglio (to trust is good, to mistrust is better). Essentially meets the criteria.
This Chinese one illustrates the incredibly cross-cultural nature of proverbs: 趁 热 打 铁 (chenre datie, strike while the iron is hot! Yes, this is how similar proverbs can be between totally unrelated cultures!).
Considering criteria (1) and (2) above, i.e, the old-to-young teaching function of proverbs, it is very hard to imagine an occasion that would trigger the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child.” Would you say it if a child misbehaves? If so, what lesson would it teach? Would an elderly woman say it to her daughter, implying “next time let the village help you raise your child”? I don’t think so. This one would die out in one generation if it could come into existence at all despite the incredible odds. As for criterion (3), I know of nothing remotely resembling this anywhere in any language. And (4)? No, it’s certainly not rural. And here’s the part that really puzzles me: if this proverb really REALLY came from Africa, why wouldn’t Hillary tell us its country, or dialect, or language of origin?
We have all heard the expression “there’s an old Chinese proverb (or Polish proverb or German proverb) …” But let’s see how this sounds:
“There’s an old European proverb…”
You see the problem?
Could it be that Hillary thinks Africa is a country with only one language and culture?
Maybe not, but does she think Americans are all that un-curious that we wouldn’t wonder exactly where in Africa her proverb came from, especially since her whole book is predicated on the proverb’s content? Isn’t it more likely that Hillary simply made up this non-proverb in an attempt to pander to African Americans while also trying to get them to break away from their traditional American way of thinking? I mean, trying, like all liberal Democrats, to persuade them that they are different from the rest of us, and have different traditions from ours. Heaven forbid they should some day wake up and realize they believe in Jesus and Biblical principles just like the political conservatives they’re supposed to feel alienated from! When slaves started to revolt in the South, slave holders tried to discourage blacks from identifying with American traditions, especially reading the Bible, and even occasionally burnt their churches down. (Both sides understood that the Bible teaches against slavery).
The Democrat plantation hasn’t changed much since then, with liberals hell-bent on bringing “their blacks” away from Christianity and other American traditions that discourage people from voting Democrat.
The use of factoids from Africa is also convenient because, while pandering to unsuspecting African Americans, it also provides a source of “information” that is hard to check up on, leaving their little game unexposed. The feminists on big-name campuses have long understood this tactic and refer in their pseudo-intellectual exposes to African ways that either never existed or were extremely rare in Africa (such as matriarchy, which existed only briefly in a tiny region).
This phenomenon of manufacturing facts in itself doesn’t have to scare us. After all, there aren’t that many Harvard-indoctrinated (don’t expect me to say “educated.” Those days are over) fruitcakes out there to corrupt our culture and the education of our children.
But here’s what does scare me:
Over 40% of you have said you would vote for Hillary, suggesting you either believe her lies and deceptions, or you think it’s fine that the Ship of State should have a sleight-of-hand artist at the helm. Jesus isn’t walking physically in our midst any more. But young people like to ask “what would Jesus do”? It’s a good question, provided you know who the real Jesus is and understand that he was no sissy, and in fact, used a whip to chase money changers out of the temple. And He called a spade a spade.
In light of that, I think He would say:
Hillary, thou fake!
May the Almighty richly bless you this day, Dear Reader,
Laigle
To be honest, I am not worried that Hillary will gain the dimo nomination, but I am scared silly that McCain will get the republican nomination.
Great way to put the truth: "The Democrat plantation hasn’t changed much since then, with liberals hell-bent on bringing “their blacks” away ..." Also illustrates the real nature of democrat opinion of black people. Is there much difference in that 'soft racism' and disdain? Naw, bought the same, which is why it is so surprising to see black people in general still so completely duped! [And if you're wondering, my dealings with black fellow workers and neighbors has made it quite clear that black people are very socially savvy, so their willful ignorance is surprising.]
Well, I somehow always associate hillary with the words "political prostitute", which one scoundrel (Lenin) once used about another (Trotsky). The association must be subconscious.
Equally applicable to Hillary is a proverb handed down to me by my father ... "You can't polish a turd."
We may have entered the age of the invention of proverbs. A student turned in a paper the other day that began with the following:
We are, therefore I am.
- African proverb
The sentiment seems to be, if Africans don't have it as a proverb, they should!
Oh, that's a good one.
Shame on you for calling Hillary a petrified turd. Let's try to avoid name calling.
"Actually if you start with a coprolith [petrified turd from dinosaur era]
Shame on you for calling Hillary a petrified turd. Let's try to avoid name calling."
Did he say petrified?
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