Posted on 11/10/2008 1:00:44 PM PST by Michael Eden
I remember a particularly entertaining X Files episode titled "Je Souhaite [I Wish]," in which a genie grants people three wishes, but they all meet with a terrible end as their wishes go horribly awry - because the genie gives them what they ask for, but never - it turns out - what they actually wanted. During the episode, Agent Fox Mulder unleashes the genie, and he and the genie (Jenn) have the following discussion:
Jenn: "The only thing you people are cursed with is stupidity. All of you. Everybody. Mankind. Everyone I have ever come into contact with without fail. Always asking for the wrong thing." Mulder: "You mean making the wrong wishes." Jenn: "Yeah, it's always: 'Give me money. Give me big boobs. Give me a big hoo-hoo. Make me cool like the Fonz.' Or whoever's the big name now." Mulder: "You been out of circulation a long time." Jenn: "So what? In 500 years, people have not changed a bit." Scully: "500 years." Jenn: "Granted, they smell better now generally speaking but human greed still reigns... shallowness... a propensity for self-destruction." Scully: "You're saying that you have been a firsthand witness to 500 years of human history." Jenn: "I used to be human. I was born in 15th century France and then, one day, an old Moor came to my village peddling rugs and I unrolled one that an Ifrit had taken residence in." Scully: "'An Ifrit'." Jenn: "A very... powerful class of jinni. He offered me three wishes. For the first I asked for a stout-hearted mule. For the second, a magic sack that was always full of turnips... Did I mention this was 15th century France?" Mulder: "What was your third wish?" Jenn: "My third... I pondered for a great while. I didn't want to waste it. So, finally, feeling very intelligent I spoke up and I said 'Je souhaite un grand pouvoir et une longue vie'. I wish for great power and long life." Mulder: "And thus became a jinni yourself." Jenn: "Gave me the mark of the jinn... [She points at the corner of her eye] "right there. It's forever. Sort of like a prison tattoo. I should've been more specific. So, am I under arrest?"Mulder comes to a realization about how to benefit from a genie who grants wishes:
Mulder: "The trick is to be specific. To make the wish perfect. That way, everyone is going to benefit. It's going to be a safer world, a happier world. There's going to be food for everyone, freedom for everyone, the end of the tyranny of the powerful over the weak. Am I leaving anything out?"Well, it's too bad we didn't have that national conservation and come to that conclusion as a country as we voted for Barack Obama. The man is vague, speaks in "glittering generalities," and says of himself, "I serve as a blank screen, on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views," and says, "I have become a symbol of ... possibility." When this "blank screen" and this "symbol of possibility" starts delivering Americans' wishes, I have a feeling they're not going to get what they thought they'd get.
We should have demanded that Obama be more specific, and tuned out the media coverage that didn't push him to be specific. We want change. But to cite the quintessential historic example of 'hope' and 'change' gone terribly wrong, Hitler promised - and in fact actually delivered - change as well. And a whole lot of the most awful change that the human race had ever witnessed has come from leaders promising the greatest change. Given the law of Entropy, if nothing else, change for the sake of change will turn out to be a bad thing far more often than it will turn out to be a good thing.
Probably too late to have made any difference in the election, we learned that Obama wants to "bankrupt" the coal industry and send electricity rates "would necessarily skyrocket" in the process. Obama wants to do a lot of things that the public either has ignored or has only partially considered.
The conversation between Mulder and the genie picks up again:
Jenn: "So, what's your first wish?" Mulder: "Well... What would your wish be if you were in my place?" Jenn: "I'm not you. It doesn't matter." Mulder: "But, I just... you know, I'd like to know." Jenn: "I'd... wish that I'd never heard the word 'wish' before. I'd wish that I could live my life moment by moment... enjoying it for what it is instead of... instead of worrying about what it isn't. I'd... sit down somewhere with a great cup of coffee and I'd watch the world go by. But then again, I'm not you. So I doubt that's your wish." Mulder: "You know, I think I'm beginning to see the problem here. You say that most people make the wrong wishes, right?" Jenn: "Without fail. It's like giving a chimpanzee a revolver." Mulder: "This is because they make their wishes solely for personal gain." Jenn: "Could be." Mulder: "So the trick would be to make a wish that's totally altruistic. That's for everyone. So, um... I wish for peace on earth." Jenn: "Peace on earth. That's it?" Mulder: "What the hell's wrong with that? You can't do it?" Jenn: "No. I can. It's done." [Mulder realizes that all traffic sounds outside have disappeared]. [Mulder]: "Oh, crap." [The street is full of empty cars and buses] "I guess I should have seen this coming!"Ah, if we want something that sounds really good, everything will turn out to be all right. NOT! It turns out the road to hell truly is paved with good intentions. In the real world of politics, the greater the promise of utopia, the worse the hell that follows becomes. Nazism, Communism, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il. The more sweeping the grand vision of hope and change, the more horrifying the fractured reality. It might as well be a universal principal of human leadership.
Anyway, Jenn the genie grants Mulder's wish for world peace, and of course every living creature but Mulder immediately disappears off the face of the earth. He should have been more specific. And, furthermore, he should have realized that hoping for a great thing is far different than achieving it. Or, as they say, wish in one hand, and crap in the other, and see which one gets full first.
Tragically, in his rush to bring about the wonderful change of world peace, Mulder forgot that real peace is built on fundamental and specific realities, not "hope" or "change" for the sake of "hope" and "change."
MULDER: What the hell is this?"How grotesquely egotistical of you." I wish that more people had more fully realized that such unadulterated arrogant hubris is a fundamental aspect of Barack Obama. Even the man's own supporters recognize that profound character flaw in him.JENN: It's what you asked for. Peace on earth. Listen.
MULDER: You know damn well that's not what I meant.
JENN: You didn't specify.
MULDER: This has nothing to do with specificity. You don't have to wipe out the entire population of the whole planet just to effect a little peace on earth and goodwill towards men.
JENN: You didn't say goodwill towards men. So you expect me to change the hearts of six billion people? No religion in history has been able to pull that off. Not Allah or Buddha or Christ. But you'd like me to do that in your name? So... what? You can feel real good about yourself?
MULDER: Did I say that? I didn't say that.
JENN: Mm, how grotesquely egotistical of you. I bet you wish you hadn't made your first wish.
So with Mulder's one remaining wish he goes through an incredibly detailed process in trying to be as specific as possible in his goal to attain world peace:
[Mulder is typing on his computer; 'Whereas, I have one wish left and desire to use it most effectively for the good of all mankind, and whereas, this wish contains great potential for the betterment of life as we know it, here on this plane of existence, and thus equal potential for grave danger, chaos, and mayhem, in effect, a world run amok — and whereas, I must cover all bases in order to achieve bliss, not bedlam. I hereby do lay out my wish with consideration of every loophole possible. Whereas specificity is the key — my wish is as follows'] Jenn: [reading] "'Whereas, I have one wish left and desire to use it most effectively for the good of all mankind.' Yadda, yadda, yadda... 'Here on this plane of existence...' Hmm... Hmm-hmm. What, are you a lawyer?" Mulder: "Well, I have to be with you. I'm going to get this wish perfect. I'm not going to leave you any loopholes. I'm not going to let you interpret this as an edict to bring back the Third Reich or to make everyone's eyes grow on stalks." Jenn: "Oh, geez. And I was so looking forward to that."But before he makes his final wish, Mulder finally comes to realize that the real curse of the genie was that stupid, greedy, naive people could not see the consequences of what they were wishing for, and so again and again came to their doom as a result. He ends up wishing that Jenn be freed from her curse of having "genie power," so that she is restored to full mortality. Her first act is to have a cup of coffee, and to begin living her life moment by moment in fulfillment of the wish - based on centuries of watching the calamity of others - that she finally comes to realize is best:
JENN: I'd... wish that I'd never heard the word "wish" before. I'd wish that I could live my life moment by moment... enjoying it for what it is instead of... instead of worrying about what it isn't. I'd... sit down somewhere with a great cup of coffee and I'd watch the world go by."I submit that Jenn would have voted Republican this election. She would have realized that the promise of some magical messiah who promises to grant all our wishes is fools' gold, and that such a man would far more likely lead us to disaster than fulfillment. She would have realized that her happiness rests in herself, rather than in some political messiah, or in what someone else has that she doesn't have.
as we vote for Barack Obama based on his nebulous promises of "change," we should have been more specific in finding out what we were wishing for, too.
We wished for Democratic control. And we're going to get more Democratic control since 1976, when Jimmy Carter and the Democrats drove the country to one disaster after another. And in too many ways, Barack Obama and the Democrats look just like Jimmy Carter and the Democrats: a weak foreign policy, a poor energy policy, and a bunch of ideas that will send our economy spiraling ever downward.
I agree with Barack Obama: this election HAS determine our future. But given what we are already seeing, I believe that we are heading down a very dark path, indeed.
As soon as I read your thread title, I immediately thought of this X-Files eppy. It does no good to tangle with a genie of any kind.
That was truely a great X-File. I think your point is dead on. Too bad the media ddn’t ask any real quesitons of the O. I guess they knew he was only an empty suit. Change for change sake is rarely productive. Look at any major company.
VERY good article!
Well, it’s not like 100% of the people are Followorshipers. The Resistance will survive two years of failed Carteresque Policies.
And it’s still not 20 January 2009 yet. Ya know?
Yeah, they waited till AFTER the election to even raise questions that should have been raised long since.
Obama is talking about reversing executive orders and banning oil drilling while imposing homosexuals on the military. He will force embryonic stem cell research which has yet to help ANYBODY but those wanting billions in funding. Big time liberal agenda coming.
Lots of spending. Domestic energy production strangled (except for liberal approved stuff which will be incredibly expensive and won’t produce much energy). Economy killing proposals like forcing unions on workplaces, high taxes, punishing productivity.
But I look at it this way: we deserve Obama. We wanted him, we got him, and we’re going to go down with Obama.
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