The Horse and the Hunter

Preamble: When I read of university faculty allowing students to establish curricula and rules of conduct, I shudder for our future.  When I read of city mayors ordering police to stand down, and that the precinct be evacuated “to avoid hand-to-hand combat” with rioters who later stormed the building and set it on fire, I marvel at such weakness.  When I read of CEOs who dictate cessation of longstanding tradition because of one complaint, I shake my head. When I learn that a university engineering department eliminates the GRE as a requirement of graduate school because it “is biased against women and minorities,” I weep for my profession.  When I hear looters justify their theft because “people should be allowed to loot stores because they’re already insured,” I stand amazed at the irrationality and immorality that has gripped this nation.  When I observe thugs, officials, and CEOs refusing to take the slightest responsibility for their actions, I wonder where we are headed.  The current pandemic of emasculation is life threatening.

An Aesop Fable

A quarrel had arisen between the Horse and the Stag over grazing rights in a pasture, so the Horse came to a Hunter to ask his help to take revenge on the Stag. The Hunter agreed, but with the caveat: “If you desire me to help you defeat the Stag, you must permit me to place this piece of iron between your jaws, so that I may guide you with these reins.  The Horse agreed.  The Hunter added, “You must allow this saddle to be placed upon your back so that I may keep steady upon you as we run through the forest,” to which the Horse also nodded.

The Horse agreed to the conditions, and the Hunter soon saddled and bridled him.  Then with the aid of the Hunter the Horse soon overcame the Stag, and said to the Hunter: “Now, get off, and remove those things from my mouth and get that thing off my back.

“Not so fast, friend,” said the Hunter.  “I now have you under bit and spur, and prefer to keep you at my command.

The Lesson

This event has played out in our country today.  The Hunter — the anarchists, home grown terrorists, seditionists of today — has bit and spur on The Horse — our government officials and CEOs whose gonads have withered to impotency, though they remain in authority over the heroes who serve, the deplorables who work, the thinkers who lead.  The Hunter fails to appreciate the Horse for having built this country, for being who he is, for how he has carried his load and accomplished much. The Hunter thinks only of himself without rationality.  The question is when and how will the Horse throw the Hunter off his back into the mire?

Jerry R Lambert
jlambert@maxxbilt.com
31 August 2020