This composition is a rather trivial complaint, but it does have broader implications.
One caveat: I do confess this embarrassing tome to be a bit self-serving. It is crafted to bring me greater respect and renown than I am currently accustomed to, by acknowledging the fact that my guide is a widely known stable genius.
I find his moral, mathematical and rhetorical skill of weaving as being invaluable. I am not ashamed to follow in the steps of a master. I’m going to run you around in circles and when you least expect it — incoming! — Much better than just simply stating the facts.
Here we go.
When in a large local market, and being tariffed out of cash, I wondered why one product was half the price of its competitor. Read the label: “100% juice:’” Ingredients: water, food coloring, artificial flavoring, etc. When I formally mentioned this to the management, I was told that no one, other than the government, was responsible for the deception; take it up with them.
May as well have handed me the quote: “Do what thou wilt will be the whole law of the land.”
Now we come to the mathematics involved: I naively expected the ingredients in a 100% juice product to be limited to one word. Apparently the government and some giant corporations view the term differently. Trump: “We’ve cut drug prices by 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%, I mean 1,500%.”
Somewhat related to this view:
We must be careful about assuming the difference between “we” and “you, “which cannot be casually substituted for each other: “We’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money.”
Well, maybe that’s my stupidity again … Trump said “We” will become rich, and “You” will be the one having trouble spending that money. Hats off and a royal bow to the president. He is 100% right: I am certainly ignorant of where to spend my fortune.
My entire point being successfully diverted, it now brilliantly comes back full circle. There’s a reason we have both a “law” and also a “justice” center. We must not confuse the two. And similarly we cannot wed legality or justice with morality … So if an enterprise consciously uses deception to empty your pockets, chalk it down to being innocent fun that is not against the law.
Dennis Shain
Centralia
