A common annecdote states that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is put in cold water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to or be aware of threats that rise gradually.
While some 19th-century experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true if the heating is sufficiently gradual, according to contemporary biologists the premise is false: a submerged frog gradually heated will jump out. (Wikipedia)
Maybe the frogs are smarter than we humans. This past weekend Wikileaks released some 20,000 emails that had been hacked from the Democratic National Committee. The leaked emails revealed that the DNC had systematically undermined Bernie Sanders’ primary election campaign. The revelation forced the resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Notably, the FBI immediately announced it would investigate who hacked the DNC. There was no mention of investigating the DNC for violating democratic process.
Of course, Hilary Clinton could claim that she had no idea what her party was doing to benefit her. Bernie Sanders, not the insider that Clinton is, complained of the party’s bias more than once. How could he know, and Clinton not know? Like she didn’t know she was committing treason by allowing secret State Department emails on her private, un-secured private email account?
Of course she knew what was being done. How can we possible vote for someone who has such a blatant disregard for the democratic process, let alone such a blatant disregard for the law, and blatant disregard for the security of the United States when she is serving as Secretary of State?
So, our choices for President in this year’s election are a man who’s such a loose canon that his own party trembles in fear every time he opens his mouth, and a woman so determined to consolidate her own power that she recognizes no moral or legal constraints.
So are we frogs in the United States boiling yet? Maybe it’s time to jump.
