Monkey Puzzle

Man has devised a clever way to capture small primates. It is called a monkey puzzle … basically a woven web or hollowed-out coconut which is attached to a sturdy post and, inside, it contains some sort of a goodie. When a monkey reaches in to get this bait, it can’t withdraw its paw without letting go of the prize … which it won’t do … therefore it was captured by its own greed.

There is a seduction analogous to this for us humans, a supposedly higher-level of primates. It’s called public welfare. Once we have our grimy paws on this government give-away, we won’t give it up … even if it means our effective enslavement. The Obama administration is counting on this primate tropism in the American public when it comes to moving health-care insurance (Obamacare) into the hollowed-out coconut. It firmly believes that the Republicans can’t or won’t roll back this offensive piece of liberal largess once they reacquire the reins of power. They might be right.

But there is an even bigger irony to this monkey puzzle theme.  And that is that the politicians themselves are enslaved by this welfare gambit.  They must keep making these public handouts bigger and bigger in order to convince the voters to let them keep their public sinecures with re-election.

So you see, we greedy voters are not the only monkeys, it’s those baboons in Washington too who also can’t let go of a good thing ... even though it might cost them their country.