[Marxism] Allegory of the Rabid Dog

["Craven, Jim" <JCraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is an allegory I developed for use as a classroom exercise.
 
Suppose I have a neighbor down the street who I have summarily declared
to be an enemy. Actually he was once a friend I supported but now is my
enemy. Why was he once a friend and why did I once support him? I don't
want to discuss that and anyone who raises that issue must be a friend
of my enemy and therefore also my enemy. Why is he now my enemy? I don't
want to discuss that either, and anyone who dares to raise the question
of why he is now my enemy, must be a friend of my enemy and therefore my
enemy also.
 
I want to take out my enemy down the street. What better way, what is
more vicious than a rabid dog. Of course I'll have to handle the rabid
dog, who, by the way, used to be my dog,  as well as the dog of  my
former friend, now my enemy, very carefully. After all, a rabid dog is
unpredictable and has little loyalty--even to me.
 
So I set the rabid dog loose on my former friend now my enemy. The
neighbors are all screaming "Why did you bring that rabid dog into the
neighborhood? That rabid dog could do crazy and bite all of us? We don't
like that guy down the street any more than you do, but turning this
rabid dog loose, could result in all of us getting bitten and even the
guy down the street not getting bitten, thus giving aid and comfort to
the guy down the street who hates us as much as we hate him?" Others in
the neighborhood are all for it--turning the rabid dog loose--since the
neighbors think, as does the guy down the street, as do I, and as does
the rabid dog himself during more lucid momemts, "the enemy of my enemy
is my friend."
 
So the rabid dog gets turned loose, but instead of taking out the guy
down the street, the rabid dog starts taking out all the neighbors and
even takes out some of my kids. Some of the neighbors who survive, and
lost their own loved ones, start screaming and threatening lawsuits. "We
told you a rabid dog has no loyalty. We told you a rabid dog could well
take out the innocent as well as the guy down the street. We told you
there must be a better way to take out the guy down the street. And by
the way, why was that guy down the street once your friend and now your
enemy?"
 
So I respond to my hand-wringing neighbors. You people once supported me
being friends with the guy down the street who was clearly bad even when
he was my friend. You people all didn't really trust him even when he
was my friend and especially later when he became our enemy. You people
who are now whining about what the rabid dog did to the neighborhood,
must be unreliable and perhaps even in league with the guy down the
street. You people who keep asking why he was once my friend and why I
supported him and are now asking why is now our enemy and why a rabid
dog was necessary to take him out, must be in league with the guy down
the street, or even in league with the rabid dog to be posing such
questions. Have you no feeling for the victims of the rabid dog? Why do
you keep asking about who brought the rabid dog into the neighborhood?
It was the rabid dog that caused the misery and anyone who focuses on
anything else than the rabid dog as the ultimate casue of the misery in
the neighborhood has no sensitivity to the victims and even must be in
league with the guy down the street and/or the rabid dog itself. Our job
is to find and take out the rabid dog not engage in hand-wringing and
subversive questions about who brought the rabid dog into the
neighborhood, fed it and ultimately turned it loose. You people posing
thse dangerous questions need to be investigated. You should be on my
watch list because I may have to find another rabid dog and bring it
into the neighborrhod to take all of you posing these nasty questions
out next. You have no right to free speech or whatever to pose such
dangerous questions that can only give aid and comfort to the enemy and
show disrespect for all those fighting that enemy.
 
Give some modern-day examples of parallels with this allegory.
 
    
 
James M. Craven
Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyi
Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business Division Chair
Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd.
Vancouver, WA. USA 98663
Tel: (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
Employer has no association with private/protected opinion
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
controls the past." (George Orwell)
"...every anticipation of results which are first to be proved seems
disturbing to me...(Karl Marx, "Grundrisse")
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!
 
 
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