Teaching a Man to Fish
"Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime." - Anonymous
In order to teach a man to fish, you must first arrange for him to forget how.
Start early. Burn his great-grandparents' village. Cut off his great-grandfather's hand. Rape his great-grandmother in front of her children before taking her to work in your estate house and them in your fields.
The man's great-grandfather will not teach him to fish. His great-grandfather died on the rubber plantation that replaced the family's hometown before the man was born. (Our great-grandfathers put new tires on their cars and went fishing with their sons.) Nor will the man be taught to fish by his grandfather, who, fatherless, mined diamonds at gunpoint and did not live see his own daughter marry. (Our grandmothers and their daughters wear diamond engagement rings.) The man's father will not teach him to fish. The man was only a toddler when he lost both parents to a war ridding mineral territory of its occupation by inefficient and unproductive humans. (Coltan, cassiterite, and tungsten are spontaneously generated, infinitely abundant miracles to which we owe the wonders of technology and the foundations of our way of life--digital communcation, laptop computers, military fleets and arsenals, and the 'vibrate' function on our mobile phones.)
The man will be raised by strangers. He will beg for food and flee for his life. Or he will steal for food and fight for his life. Or he will work to feed others and beg for his life. (We will think it his fault that he kills and inevitable that he die.)
Perhaps it is just as well that he has forgotten how to fish. The plants and animals that his great-grandfather used to make fishing tackle can no longer be found. The lakes and streams where his great-grandfather fished have been drained to feed factories and poisoned by runoff from plantations and mines. The fish his great-grandfather caught have been decimated to keep first-world plates and bank accounts full. Were he to eat any fish that remain, he may develop cancer from the petroleum-based pesticides concentrated in its flesh. Were he to bring fish home to his wife (were he to have a home and a wife), their children might suffer cognitive impairment and birth defects from the heavy metals in the water from the runoff from the mines in which his father and grandfather died. And perhaps it is just as well--at least this man's children will not suffer knowledge as well as hunger and pain.
The man whom we intend to teach to fish was never a boy who carried a fishing pole. He never went to the lake with his father. This man was born to carry a gun. Our poor fathers manufacture guns, our middle-class fathers design them, and our rich fathers sell them for profit. Cheap lives for costly dust and ether as long as trade is free.
Ah, but we, we with our lines and our hooks, we with our miles of factory-wound lines and our buckets of machine-stamped identical hooks--we are feeding the world.
In order to teach a man to fish, you must first arrange for him to forget how.
Start early. Burn his great-grandparents' village. Cut off his great-grandfather's hand. Rape his great-grandmother in front of her children before taking her to work in your estate house and them in your fields.
The man's great-grandfather will not teach him to fish. His great-grandfather died on the rubber plantation that replaced the family's hometown before the man was born. (Our great-grandfathers put new tires on their cars and went fishing with their sons.) Nor will the man be taught to fish by his grandfather, who, fatherless, mined diamonds at gunpoint and did not live see his own daughter marry. (Our grandmothers and their daughters wear diamond engagement rings.) The man's father will not teach him to fish. The man was only a toddler when he lost both parents to a war ridding mineral territory of its occupation by inefficient and unproductive humans. (Coltan, cassiterite, and tungsten are spontaneously generated, infinitely abundant miracles to which we owe the wonders of technology and the foundations of our way of life--digital communcation, laptop computers, military fleets and arsenals, and the 'vibrate' function on our mobile phones.)
The man will be raised by strangers. He will beg for food and flee for his life. Or he will steal for food and fight for his life. Or he will work to feed others and beg for his life. (We will think it his fault that he kills and inevitable that he die.)
Perhaps it is just as well that he has forgotten how to fish. The plants and animals that his great-grandfather used to make fishing tackle can no longer be found. The lakes and streams where his great-grandfather fished have been drained to feed factories and poisoned by runoff from plantations and mines. The fish his great-grandfather caught have been decimated to keep first-world plates and bank accounts full. Were he to eat any fish that remain, he may develop cancer from the petroleum-based pesticides concentrated in its flesh. Were he to bring fish home to his wife (were he to have a home and a wife), their children might suffer cognitive impairment and birth defects from the heavy metals in the water from the runoff from the mines in which his father and grandfather died. And perhaps it is just as well--at least this man's children will not suffer knowledge as well as hunger and pain.
The man whom we intend to teach to fish was never a boy who carried a fishing pole. He never went to the lake with his father. This man was born to carry a gun. Our poor fathers manufacture guns, our middle-class fathers design them, and our rich fathers sell them for profit. Cheap lives for costly dust and ether as long as trade is free.
Ah, but we, we with our lines and our hooks, we with our miles of factory-wound lines and our buckets of machine-stamped identical hooks--we are feeding the world.
posted by Ingrid at 11:10 PM
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