Skip to main content

The Source of All Discord


Few people enjoy the sound of silverware scraping porcelain. It is worse even than the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard because you are often enjoying food when it occurs, which interrupts the pleasure of food and family. It may not, in fact, be all-too shocking to hear that eliminating this horrid sound will, according to my calculations, end all human warfare and usher in an era of peace.

 Here is why: all conflicts start because individuals are not raised in peace-loving homes. A child accidentally scrapes his porcelain plate with a knife, which causes the elder sister to wince. Noticing this response, the child laughs and, wanting to reproduce his pleasure, scrapes again. The sister then sucks in her breath sharply and tells the little one to stop. Mother and father, having also been raised in porcelain-scraping homes, begin to laugh, encouraging the child to scrape even more profusely.

 Incensed, said sister-- at a loss now as to how to counteract her brother's wayward behavior-- grabs hold of him and begins to shake his shoulders as a firm warning against continuing. Not to be outdone, the brother responds in kind, grasping his sister by the shoulders and shaking vigorously. The two, now throttling one another, wrestle until both are exhausted and until their parents banish them to their rooms.

 The problem of porcelain-scraping does not end here, however, for said brother has now learned a valuable lesson that he eagerly takes into adulthood. The lesson is this: you can agitate any passer-by, and thus have your way, with nothing more than a simple fork and plate. Thus, the conflicts he learned in childhood as a result of his porcelain-scraping, he now employs in the public arena, and thus produces all the rivalry, discord, and warfare we all perceive to be a ubiquitous part of our existence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heroes

Although we have several examples of heroes in our day, one of the best known is of a woman named Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“Gonja Bojaju”), who devoted her life to sustaining the “poor, sick, orphaned, and dying.” Her venue was Calcutta, India, where she served as a teacher until she began to take notice of the poverty there. Seeking to do something about it, she began an organization that consisted of just thirteen members at its inception. Called the “Missionaries of Charity,” the organization would eventually burgeon into well over 5,000 members worldwide, running approximately 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries; and caring for the orphaned, blind, aged, disabled, and poor. As her personal work expanded, she traveled to countries like Lebanon, where she rescued 37 children from a hospital by pressing for peace between Israel and Palestine; to Ethiopia, where she traveled to help the hungry; to Chernobyl, Russia, to assist victims of the nuclear meltdown there; and to ...
2 comments
Read more

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more

Comparative Medical Care

One thing I'd like to understand is why there is such a difference between medical costs here and those in Haiti. At the time the book Mountains Beyond Mountains was written, in 2003, it often cost $15,000 to $20,000 annually to treat a patient with tuberculosis, while it cost one one-hundredth of that-- $150 to $200-- to treat a patient for the disease in Haiti. Even if the figures aren't completely accurate, the sheer difference would still be there. Indeed, the United States pays more per capita for medical care than any other country on Earth. My first guess for why the disparity exists is that there is a market willing and able to pay more for medical treatment, so suppliers see the demand and respond with higher prices. According to at least one doctor (go to http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/05/what_is_the_cause_of_excess_co.php), part of the reason is administrative prices here. People here have a higher standard of living, and so the cost of care is shifted to ...
2 comments
Read more