Actually that transcript doesn't do it fulll justice, because Bill Moyer's didn't even grasp the moral of Aesop tale. I added the extra stuff they was said in the video...
JONATHAN HAIDT: So I got sent this video by a lot of people because, oh, my God, these Republicans are so heartless. They're so evil and cruel and terrible. But it's exactly Aesop's ant and the grasshopper. The grasshopper fiddles away all the summer while the ants are working and working and working, preparing for the winter. The grasshopper says, "Oh, you're being silly, working so hard." And then winter comes. The grasshopper comes, knocks on the ants' door and he's starving to death, he's freezing. He says, "Take me in. Feed me." And as some liberals see it, the point of the ant and the grasshopper and that the ants are supposed to feed the grasshopper. But that's not what Aesop meant.
BILL MOYERS: What did Aesop mean? Aesop doesn't mean that the ant should feed the poor grasshopper?...
JONATHAN HAIDT: No, Aesop meant, that you better take care of yourself because if you don't, if you're lazy and you expect others to take care of you, you deserve to die. You deserve to be left out in the cold. |
