Posted on 04/10/2002 2:16:20 PM PDT by Starmaker
A man and his young son are watching the struggle inside a cocoon. The father has explained what´s happening, and the boy is fascinated, awaiting the appearance of the butterfly. After several anxious minutes, the boy, with wrinkled brow, asks, ‘Can´t we help it, Dad? Let´s cut open the cocoon so the butterfly can get out.´ In his tender heart he suffers with the seemingly futile struggle of the ‘trapped´ butterfly.
Now, you´ve probably all heard this story. The man cuts the cocoon open…and a weird little creature, with stunted, withered wings, crawls out. Unable to fly, it can´t get food, and is easy prey for birds, so it soon dies. The problem is that the ‘struggle´ to get out of the cocoon is actually what we´ d call ‘training.´ It strengthens the butterfly´s wings and muscles so it will be able to fly. By ‘helping´ it avoid that struggle, even though out of compassion, the man doomed the butterfly to a short and futile life.
A similar scene is one we´ve probably all witnessed at one time or another: T-ball, where the four- and five-year-olds begin to learn the game of baseball. Often I´ve witnessed coaches encourage some inept little fellow by making sure he finally gets a ‘hit´—even if it required them to hit the bat with the ball! Everyone will scream, ‘Run, run!´, and often as not, he takes off to third…or the pitcher´s mound! But the coaches will finally get him headed toward first, while they hold the ball or kick it around. Then they´ll direct him toward second, with everyone cheering and screaming.
Such encouragement is a joy to see, and a tribute to the heart of the coaches. Why not give a little taste of success to a fledgling, to encourage him or her to practice, to want to do better so the joys of the game, when earned, are rightfully a source of pride and accomplishment? It´ s exactly what should be part of the T-ball experience. But imagine that same mentality for high schoolers, or for major leaguers.
‘We´ll just not keep score!´, I can hear some do-gooder bubble. ‘That way, everyone will have a positive experience.´ And if a player gets three strikes on him, well, let´s give him a few more; the object of the game is, after all, enjoyment for everyone, right? I mean, winning isn´t important, after all, right? And if a player has made three outs, the fourth time up let´s ‘pretend´ we can´t catch a ball he hits, OK? Then he gets on base. See how much ‘fun´ this would be?
That travesty is exactly what ‘liberals´ are trying to do to this nation. Like helping five-year-olds at T-ball, they want to ‘guarantee´ that all Americans ‘succeed,´ or at least that all fail at the same level, so nobody´s self-esteem will be lowered. They want to ‘cut open the cocoon,´ even though that ‘help´ will leave us all too weak to fly. Then we´ll have to depend on government for everything. ‘Liberals´ believe that´s a good thing…but Custer believed there weren´t many Indians out there, too.
The society ‘liberals´ dream of is one where the ‘rules of the game´ are perpetually suspended (in order to ‘help´ the T-ballers of life). There can ´t be established, unchanging standards that apply equally to everyone, because then some will do well, and some will not. And that´s just not acceptable to ‘liberals.´ Everyone must be equal…even if it means equally deprived, oppressed, limited, miserable, hopeless, etc. It´s like holding the entire class back until the slow kid learns the lesson—government by the lowest common denominator.
Ultimately, that´s what ‘liberalism´ actually does, it destroys the rules of the game, the foundations of society. Like the ‘rules´ that say the butterfly must struggle to exit its cocoon, those rules are there for a reason. But ‘liberals´ are willing to ‘let the butterfly die,´ as long as they can show their caring and compassion for his struggle.
News from last week demonstrates this ‘liberal´ mindset perfectly. Several school districts have outlawed traditional childhood games—tag, dodge ball, steal the bacon and even musical chairs! Seems these teach ‘aggression, competition, stealing and, most importantly, they´re ‘exclusionist´ and ‘make some kids feel bad about themselves.´ These games ‘let the strong victimize the weak.´
The individual effort, responsibility for our own performance, and rules that apply to everyone equally are the things ‘liberals´ can´t abide about our society, even in children´s games. The ultimate goal is to completely strip us of the individualism and independence which characterized the Founding and subsequent generations of Americans, leading to unparalleled economic prosperity, military might and practically limitless opportunities for all. Systematically doing away with those traits creates a nation that looks first to government for help, permission or direction. It creates a people who would have been too timid and unsure of themselves to set out for the American colonies.
The ‘liberals´ are simply wrong. In games, in baseball, or in life, the most important thing in the long run is playing by the rules. It really is ‘how you play the game.´ Because if the rules of the game are not observed by everybody, then there is no such thing as ‘winning,´ because the game would degenerate into squabbles, etc. (like our current society?). The structure of the game, the bylaws, the rules…anathema to ‘liberals´…enable everybody to play, to enjoy, to make the effort to win and, when they do, to feel a sense of rightful accomplishment for their honest effort.
‘Liberals´ (socialists) would have us change the rules of the game of life so little Johnny wouldn´t ‘feel bad about himself´ when he does poorly, or when he makes a mistake. After all, that´s damaging to his tender psyche. They seek to apply the T-ball model of ‘encouragement´ to our entire society, never grasping that what´s good for four- and five-year-olds is not good, and even damaging, for adults. As those little T-ballers grow older, they actually learn that they´re not guaranteed a base hit, after all; they have to work, to practice hitting until they can do it legitimately. And they learn that when they don´t do well, they feel badly about themselves. To ‘liberals,´ the overprotective ‘parents´ of our society, that´s a cardinal sin. To the rest of us, it´s called ‘life.´
The truly horrible thing about doing lousy in baseball, or in life, is to be made to think that it´s ‘not your fault.´ Of course it´s your ‘fault´! As long as the rules apply to everyone the same, how could it be anyone else´s fault? If more people had a healthy sense of their own role and responsibility in creating their own lives, perhaps we could put some of the lawyers out business. What about those who just don´t have the ability? Then don´t ‘play baseball;´ choose something else that you´re better at!
Everybody doesn´t have to be the same, have the same, end up the same, etc. That´s what ‘liberals´ (socialists) can never see or understand. We´ve seen glimpses of that kind of life in 1984, Brave New World, etc. And we´ve seen it in real life in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and elsewhere. But that´s not ‘life´ at all, because it kills the human spirit. You can´t force everyone to be exactly the same…well, you can, but that´s what you must do—force them. It´s not natural and it´s not healthy, for those forced or those doing the forcing.
Making life ‘safe´ for little Johnny or Sue does them no favors. Sparing them their struggles, their losses and ‘bad feelings about themselves´ only results in stunting their growth, in weakening them, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The stupidity of removing dodge ball, cops and robbers and tag because the losers ‘feel badly about themselves´ is typical of an ideology that sees life as a T-ball game, where the rules must be suspended so ‘grown ups´ (i.e., the government) can ‘help´ us.
I prefer the real, grown-up game of baseball, and of life. We all know the rules, we all get a chance ‘to bat.´ Some players are more talented, but they don´t always win. Some are less talented, but we have at least a chance. We all know it´s how hard we play, how much effort we´re willing to put into the game that makes the difference. And when we try with all our heart, and still lose…we´ve still become better people for the effort. And we get to dust ourselves off and try again tomorrow. And when we win, we know we´ve earned it, and are rightfully proud.
If the ‘liberals´ T-ball the game to make sure we ‘win´…I´d just as soon not play. That´s what ‘nanny´ socialism creates—apathy, indifference, resignation. I say ‘Play ball!´—but get the ‘parents´ off the field!
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Paul at pescates@earthlink.net .
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Eventually, I went from being the last kid picked for the team to one of the first (though never the first) and, with lots of practice, learned how to throw.
Within two years, I was a fair pitcher with good control. How different things might have turned out had I been T-balled, a game which did not even exist at the time. Small fries learned the fundamentals with a whiffle ball and plastic bat in those days.
Excellent article. Too bad that the libs will never understand these basic truths.
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