Remember your Greek Mythology from high school? In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus and crew were blown off-course and ended up at the land of the Lotus Eaters. The results were not pretty.
I was driven thence by foul winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return; nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars.
The term “lotus eaters” has been regularly used to describe people concerned with nothing but their own pleasure without regard to practical issues or those who wish for such a utopia on earth.
From the dissolute scions of old money to the famous-for-being-famous, there has always been a segment of society who just want to party 24/7.
However, I don’t ever remember it being so blatant in an elected politician.
Non-workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your supply chains!
— Clifford D. May (@CliffordDMay) April 23, 2020
“When we talk about this idea of ‘reopening society,’ you know, only in America, does the President, when the President tweets about liberation, does he mean go back to work. When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a lot people should just say ‘no,’ we’re not going back to that. We’re not going back to working 70 hour weeks just so that we can put food on the table and not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives.”
Say, what? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has sure meandered down the primrose path of derpitude on more occasions than even we wish to highlight. She is just the gift that keeps on giving … like herpes. However, in what world does an alleged adult feel that refusing to step up and take responsibility for one’s own existence is anti-liberty?
She was born in 1989, making her an official Millennial, but even old Boomer me won’t judge a whole generation based on her 30-going-on-14-I-demand-endless-summer-vacation sentiments. Don’t you also love her WE are not going back to 70 hour weeks!? This cosseted whiner has never seen the fat-end of a 40 hour week. I’d take those odds to Las Vegas tomorrow, regardless of Anderson Cooper’s faux-outrage hand-flapping. The fact remains that the American worker puts in an average of 34.4 hours per week.
Oh, yes? You in the back frantically waving? Yes, I know what average means. There are and will always be people who work more and those who work less than the average. There are oodles of variables – by industry, profession, season, etc. However, there is little to indicate AOC’s implied OMG we are nothing but 70/hour/week wage slaves! excuse for considering work too icky to actually go back to is reality.
Obviously, she’s found her well-paid, albeit non-productive, niche in :::cough::: public service ::::cough:::: a satrapy of lotus eaters throughout history.
Is AOC a one-off though? Certainly, when polls show young Americans favoring the Santa Claus illusion of socialism over supporting themselves, it doesn’t bode well. And while 22 million Americans are currently out of work, many like AOC aren’t that interested in getting back anytime soon.
Jamie Black-Lewis felt like she won the lottery after getting two forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. […]
When Black-Lewis convened a virtual employee meeting to explain her good fortune, she expected jubilation and relief that paychecks would resume in full even though the staff — primarily hourly employees — couldn’t work.
She got a different reaction.
“It was a firestorm of hatred about the situation,” Black-Lewis said.
Hatred? At their boss, a small business owner, who jumped through hoops so they could still have a paycheck while home AND have a job to come back to?
Uh, yeah …
The anger came from employees who’d determined they’d make more money by collecting unemployment benefits than their normal paychecks. […]
“I couldn’t believe it,” she added. “On what planet am I competing with unemployment?”
Planet Lotus Eaters, Ms. Black-Lewis. AOC’s people.
Ann in L.A. says: I have very, very liberal friends (one literally said on fb one day: “when will people realize that socialism is the answer!” and another just last week posted a list of things that other people love, but he hates: the final point on his list was “capitalism” [side note: he’s a professor of constitutional law]). A few days ago another posted his version of the solution to keeping people safe: “Pay everyone to stay home. The billionaires get a little poorer, but everyone lives.”
So often, I don’t know where to even begin with people like this. There is literally nothing I could say that would wake them up.
GWB says: We could always force all of those people to stay at home for two months without a paycheck. That might work.
(I’m betting they are 1) supported by someone else, 2) gov’t workers, or 3) essential workers. Turn them into those other folks.)
John Fredrick says: Borloi, to keep the masses in the welfare islands medicated, as Pournelle put it.
“I live, therefore I deserve.” should serve as a philosophy for this generation.
[…] blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on AOC and a generation of lotus […]
GWB says: in what world does an alleged adult feel that refusing to step up and take responsibility for one’s own existence is anti-liberty?
I think you got a second negative in there, cancelling the first.
Yes, I know what average means.
Think of the average person you know. Now think about the fact that HALF the people are stupider than that. Yikes.
Yeah, about that whole “wage slave” thing….
I’m fine with you not being a wage slave. But find someone else (like a husband) to take care of you, because I’m going to no longer do it. Your choice is to work and earn or to starve or to find charity. And I insist the gov’t take back its hand in that department.
AND have a job to come back to?
Well, understand that when he became capable of bringing them back to the job, they were no longer eligible for unemployment. If he said “Sure, you can have your job back; here’s your paycheck,” and they turn it down, they’ve turned down a job offer (ineligible!). If they take it, they’re no longer unemployed (ineligibile!).
This is part of why gov’t charity is always, everywhere, a BAD idea.
It’s not just the lotus eaters, it’s those who want to enable the lotus eaters, too.
BTW, in every case of lotus eaters in the original Star Trek series/books/comics, those who became lotus eaters ended up needing saving by those hard workers on the Enterprise. (Nerd has got to nerd.)
S. Ant says: I always thought of them more as the Eloi.
Joe in PNG says: The lazy, the sorry no-account, the sophomoric windbags- all have always been among us.
In times of plenty, the rest of society can afford to indulge them. But in hard times, when money is tight, not so much.
AOC’s obvious pandering is out of date, even kind of quaint post Covid-19. As time progresses, fewer actual working people are going to be as tolerant of having their money taken and sent to the non-working people.
Chancellor says: Actually, the average person I know is pretty darn smart. And all of them are much, much smarter than AOC.
The people I really feel sorry for are GOP ad writers. Because between Biden, Schiff, Pelosi, and AOC the ads just simply write themselves.
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