The Ant and The Grasshopper

The Ant and The Grasshopper

CLASSIC VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing “We shall overcome”. Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair share”. Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act”, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

shouldn't this be in the "lighter side" forum?

Thelost1 said:

shouldn\\\\\\\'t this be in the \\\\\\\"lighter side\\\\\\\" forum?

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I\'m sorry!

no it's fine. Kinda funny actually. Inaccurate, but funny.

And what's with the slashes?

Thelost1 said:

shouldn't this be in the "lighter side" forum?

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Since when is racism, classism, and general bigotry "light"?
Do you seriously think this is a joke?

1069 said:

Since when is racism, classism, and general bigotry "light"?
Do you seriously think this is a joke?

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I thought it was kinda funny but then when I saw your post it made it funnier.

1069 said:

Since when is racism, classism, and general bigotry "light"?
Do you seriously think this is a joke?

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I don't think it's racist.

It should be in the lighter side forum because it is satirical and lacks the debating potential of other posts in the standard forums.

1069 said:

Since when is racism, classism, and general bigotry . . .

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None of these were present in the piece.

The only "ism" I read was "anti-lazy" ism.

What race ? They are species of bugs.

Classism ? The difference was not rich vs poor, the difference was someone who works, vs someone who doesn't.

General Bigotry ? What are you ? Some kind of Spider lover ? :lol:

Voidwar said:

None of these were present in the piece.

The only "ism" I read was "anti-lazy" ism.

What race ? They are species of bugs.

Classism ? The difference was not rich vs poor, the difference was someone who works, vs someone who doesn't.

General Bigotry ? What are you ? Some kind of Spider lover ? :lol:

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Satiristically, one can see most of what 1069 claimed was there. It's an interesting piece. I'm going to do a search to see where it came from.

Update: apparently this has been circulating since the late '90's in various formats. Found it at either pro-Republican, pro-conservative, or fundamentalist websites. What a surprise...:roll:

It shows a general lack of understanding about the world, and an assumption that everyone starts out roughly equally.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Satiristically, one can see most of what 1069 claimed was there.

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No, it wasn't.

Why not actually address my post, and specifically show where the racism / classism was, instead of restating her falsehood ?

The ant refers to a rich/average/white person while the grasshopper is a poor/struggling/black person.

Thelost1 said:

The ant refers to a rich/average/white person while the grasshopper is a poor/struggling/black person.

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Prove it with quotes from the piece.

Show me what line of the piece says that the ant is a caucasian or admit that you are just projecting.

Perhaps you hold some kind of racist idea in your mind that whites work and blacks don't, but please realize that you have read your innate prejudices into the piece. The piece was about folks who work and folks who don't, and anything else you take away from it, you brought with you.

no, I was just explaining what 1069 was thinking. Take it up with him.

And you've read what I wrote wrongly anyways.

1069 is a "her".

I disagree. I do not think you were trying to clarify her statements, I think you were trying to make the same re-assertion without substantiation that Cap'nCourtesy was.

Voidwar said:

No, it wasn't.

Why not actually address my post, and specifically show where the racism / classism was, instead of restating her falsehood ?

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You do understand what satire is? Here you go:

Main Entry: sat·ire
Pronunciation: 'sa-"tI(-&)r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin satura, satira, perhaps from (lanx) satura dish of mixed ingredients, from feminine of satur well-fed; akin to Latin satis enough -- more at [SIZE=-1]SAD[/SIZE]
1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

This piece is certainly an ironic, sarcastic literary work, wittily and metaphorically using a fable to expose how the Democratic/liberal position would handle a situation explained in the original fable. Now I can go through each part of the story and point out where it seems that the author uses metaphors for racism, classism, etc..., but the thing about satire is that it is interpretable; how it appears to me may not be how it appears to someone else.

Voidwar said:

1069 is a "her".

I disagree. I do not think you were trying to clarify her statements, I think you were trying to make the same re-assertion without substantiation that Cap'nCourtesy was.

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The only real interest I had in the thread, initially was where to put it, and then to comment on how what 1069 read into it, certainly could be perceived. Didn't know I be pressed to substantiate, as I thought the satire was obvious. I mean, what else could be the purpose of the revised story?

CaptainCourtesy said:

Now I can go through each part of the story and point out where it seems that the author uses metaphors for racism, classism, etc...,

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If you could, I think you would. Once you try, you'll find you too are projecting.

Voidwar said:

If you could, I think you would. Once you try, you'll find you too are projecting.

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I can quite easily, as much of it is somewhat obvious...but again, as I said, satire is interpretable to the specific reader, though I think in this case, much of the metaphors are fairly clear.

Prove it. Using specific quotes from the piece.

You've made the claim twice now. Back it up.

Voidwar said:

Prove it. Using specific quotes from the piece.

You've made the claim twice now. Back it up.

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Relax, Voidwar. This will be tedious, and it's late, so I'll get through what I can.

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

Click to expand...

Here's the satiristic premise: the ant is now advantaged, the grasshopper is now disadvantaged. This is based on their economic situations. Doesn't matter how it happened.

The bold. Classist. Why should one class (the ant warm and comfortable) be allowed to have that while others are allowed to subsist at a less comforable level. This points to the differences in the classes and infers that the advantaged refuses to share with the disadvantaged. Satiristically, it demands to know why one less fortunate deserves to be given advantages that others already have.

CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Click to expand...

More of the same. Why should the ant be allowed to live in the lap of luxury while the grasshopper suffers? This mocks liberalism and socialism, presenting classlessness as a cure all to suffering. The media presentation, satiristically shows how the media will jump on any liberal cause and defend the disadvantaged in an attempt to equalize the classes. All satire.

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing “We shall overcome”. Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Click to expand...

Demeaing to blacks. 'It's Not Easy Being Green' and Jesse Jackson are satiristic metaphors aimed at blacks pulling the 'race card' when issues are presented, whether or not race is an issue. Depending on the ant's nationality, this could also be classist, though, having Jesse Jackson involved, porbably means the author meant for the ant to be white.

Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair share”. Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act”, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Click to expand...

Condemns liberalism and tries to equalize classes by punishing the more advantaged ant. Satiristically presents classism in the form of questioning why the ant should be punished for doing well and why should the less disavantaged be given assistance jsut because they need it. The 'green bug' piece could be an attack on Affirmative Action which can be seen as racist.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

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Single-parent welfare recipients. Certainly classist. Satiristically identifies that these poor people want something for nothing.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it. /quote]

So, the grasshopper, of a more disadvantaged class, would not maintain the house. Classist and bigotted

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

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One who is disadvantaged would be invovled in drugs and ruin the peaceful neighborhood. Classist and biggotted.

So, there you have it. Probably one of the more complicated posts I've made.

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excellant post captain Courtesy.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Here's the satiristic premise: the ant is now advantaged, the grasshopper is now disadvantaged. This is based on their economic situations. Doesn't matter how it happened.

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How it happened is exactly the point of the old version. The ignoring of how it happened is the satire in the new version.

CaptainCourtesy said:

The bold. Classist. Why should one class (the ant warm and comfortable) be allowed to have that while others are allowed to subsist at a less comforable level.

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class·ism (klszm)
n.
Bias based on social or economic class

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Nothing in the story relates whether the Ant grew up affluent, or whether the grasshopper's family was rich. The bias in the story is not based on their "class" but on their personal wealth. Not stats on a group, but the personal property of two individuals. "Class" is many, the ant is one.

CaptainCourtesy said:

This points to the differences in the classes and infers that the advantaged refuses to share with the disadvantaged. Satiristically, it demands to know why one less fortunate deserves to be given advantages that others already have.

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Already "have" or already "earned" ???

CaptainCourtesy said:

More of the same. Why should the ant be allowed to live in the lap of luxury while the grasshopper suffers?

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No one "allowed" him to. He worked to make it so.

There is no classism in the story, because the story is about two individuals, and contains no groups, and no info on the affluence or lack thereof of either individual's background / parents.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Demeaing to blacks. 'It's Not Easy Being Green' and Jesse Jackson are satiristic metaphors aimed at blacks pulling the 'race card' when issues are presented, whether or not race is an issue.

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This is a matter of your opinion, and not corroborated within the story. Is it your contention that Jesse Jackson would only help blacks ? You might be right, but this is a preconcieved notion that you held before you read the piece, and this notion is not present in the piece, it is again, something you brought with you.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Depending on the ant's nationality, this could also be classist, though, having Jesse Jackson involved, porbably means the author meant for the ant to be white.

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more of your unspoken assumptions about Jesse, and not corroborated in the piece itself.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Condemns liberalism and tries to equalize classes by punishing the more advantaged ant. Satiristically presents classism in the form of questioning why the ant should be punished for doing well and why should the less disavantaged be given assistance jsut because they need it.

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This is NOT classism, this is a legitimate question in social, economic, and and political philosophy.

CaptainCourtesy said:

The 'green bug' piece could be an attack on Affirmative Action which can be seen as racist.

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Bull. Race quotas are racist, and attacking them, is specifically Non-Racist.

CaptainCourtesy said:

Single-parent welfare recipients. Certainly classist.

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Nope. Objective Judgement of sub-par decision making.

Do you think being a single mother on assistance is a laudable goal ? I can tell you, it is not, and speaking that truth does not make me classist.

CaptainCourtesy said:

So, the grasshopper, of a more disadvantaged class, would not maintain the house. Classist and bigotted

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Incorrect. It is not biased and bigotted, it is based on the track record of the grasshopper as detailed in the story. It takes work to maintain a home, and the story already tells us the grasshopper won't. Thus, the house delapidates through the negligence of its new occupant. It is not bias, when we are basing it off the grasshopper's personal track record.

CaptainCourtesy said:

One who is disadvantaged would be invovled in drugs and ruin the peaceful neighborhood. Classist and biggotted.

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This is again a matter of your opinion, and not corroborated in the piece. It is simply statistically accurate. Drug violence happens vastly more often among the poor. How do you call a statistical fact bigotted ???