Parable by James Thurber The Bear Who Let It Alone "In the woods of the Far West there once lived a brown bear who could take it or let it alone. He would go into a bar where they sold mead, a fermented drink made of honey, and he would have just two drinks. Then he would put some money on the bar and say, 'See what the bears in the back room will have,' and he would go home. But finally he took to drinking by himself most of the day. He would reel home at night, kick over the umbrella stand, knock down the bridge lamps, and ram his elbows through the windows. Then he would collapse on the floor and lie there until he went to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened.
"At length the bear saw the error of his ways and began to reform. In the end he became a famous teetotaler and a persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to his house about the awful effects of drink, and he would boast about how strong and well he had become since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this, he would stand on his head and on his hands and he would turn cartwheels in the house, kicking over the umbrella stand, knocking down the bridge lamps, and ramming his elbows through the windows. Then he would lie down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and go to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened. After telling this little story the father turned to his young children and said: "Moral: You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward." Several years passed and the children were by the fireside again and one of the girls said that she was thinking about the parable and wondered if there was more to it than her father had let on, several years before. "Children, now that you are older," said the father, "I can explain that parable in more detail. Back then you could not have understood the deeper meaning but I think you should be able to grasp things with the advantage of all you have learned in the past several years." "I think the bear stands for a person," said the girl, "and I think his behavior stands for something people do besides knocking things over." "That is absolutely correct," said the father, "here is the hidden meaning of the story : "The bear stands for an American citizen who votes, it could be anyone. Getting drunk signifies the excesses of the Democratic Party, its irrational acceptance of every new idea that comes along, all the stupid ideas as well as good ideas. In other words, if you stick to just the good ideas it is like just having a couple of drinks, which is basically a good thing to do, but getting drunk is like being uncritical about the new ideas you accept and, as a result, acting like an idiot." "What does it mean that the bear became a teetotaler?," asked the girl. "That is the other extreme, the lunacy of the Republican Party, unable to accept hardly any new ideas and feeling self-righteous about it and then proclaiming to the world how good their ideas are even if some of them are now hopelessly obsolete and are causing harm to others." "So we should not be like either?" asked the girl. "Exactly," said the father, "which is why your mother and I are committed Radical Centrists and registered Independent voters." At that, the oldest boy spoke up: "You can take this one step further," he said. "The Democrats say their favorite president is Thomas Jefferson, but he really is Jimmy Carter, an inept and naive bungler who spouted high-minded ideas but basically didn't know what he was doing. The Republicans say their favorite president is Abraham Lincoln but who he really is, is Herbert Hoover, whose policies not only led us into the Great Depression but were so inflexible and out-dated that in the 3 years he had to fix the problem he made everything worse." "And who is the favorite president of Radical Centrists?" asked the girl "Well," said the father, "we say it is Teddy Roosevelt, and there is some truth to that, TR was a far sighted man with bold ideas that steered the country in the right direction for decades after him, but who he really is, is George Washington, who made the United States possible, who had courage and was committed to democracy and always sought the best available ideas for governing the nation wherever those ideas came from." "Is there anyone like that today?" asked the boy. "That," said the father, "is who we must search for -until we find him, or it could even be a woman; but whomever it is it is up to us to make the effort, it is the political equivalent of the Grail Quest. But I can tell you one thing for sure, it won't be any of the current candidates of either party that the pundits are now talking about. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
