Show me Some Moxie…Fight Orthodoxy! Part 1
More Conventional Wisdom Questioned
1. Cogito, ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am. Descartes)
I think, therefore I should tell others how they should think.
2. In God we trust. (Well, some of us, sometimes, when we are in dire straits where the situation appears hopeless.)
As long as He or She guarantees us that we can do whatever we like and still get admitted to Heaven. The cynics ask however: Would you trust Him or Her today without a written guarantee?
3. To the victors go the spoils.
In Little League Baseball, the victors get spoiled, and the losers get whatever is spoiled.
4. Love thy neighbors as thyself.
Only narcissists can do a reasonable job of this. However, it’s a much tougher task for them to accomplish.
5. To err is human, to forgive divine.
Since forgiving is such an easy thing for humans to do, all of us must be divine and consequently error-free. To confirm, ask anyone.
6. What goes around, comes around.
We get what we deserve, unless of course we get what we don’t deserve. Then we write our Congressman. Or call customer service and talk to someone in India who needs to brush up on his or her American English.
7. If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.
Since no one wants to walk on water today, that’s much too slow, the best solution is to obtain a hydrogen-powered amphibian SUV that can go anywhere like a WWII Duck.
8. There are no winners and no losers, only survivors.
Except for a very few hearty cases, there aren’t many human survivors over 100 years old either.
9. If at first you don’t succeed, try again.
And when that fails, cheat. If you are unsuccessful at cheating, lie and hire a good lawyer.
10. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. (Samuel Johnson)
Unless you are a Catholic priest working in San Francisco, Boston, or some other communities in unobservant America.
11. Ye shall know them by their fruits. “Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?” The Bible, Saint Matthew
Who knows? To be sure, you have to check with the illegal immigrants who do the picking.
12. To each according to his or her need from each according to his or her ability – to pay progressive state and federal income taxes. (Communist Manifesto.)
Except, of course, all those taxpayers who are exempt according to the US Tax Code like private corporations registered in the West Indies, non-profit organizations whose executives are serving voluntarily, businesses going bankrupt due to executive greed, marketing arrogance, and questionable practices, and thousands of other individual tax payers who are borrowing heavily via first and second mortgages and home equity loans so that they can enjoy the bona vita.
To be continued…
