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A parable of sorts...
...that you can interpret any way you wish. I've made it somewhat general on purpose...you can make it more specific very easily.
The Corporation is holding a meeting. All the new employees--and there are many--gather into the expansive conference room to hear the Boss speak. The Boss stands up and tells the employees that he has a new assignment for all of them.
"This assignment," the Boss explains, "will require all of you to leave Corporation HQ for a period of time. The assignment is simple: I will be giving all of you a special package. Your task will be to take that package and deliver it to another location--for which I will give you detailed directions. This other location is quite a distance away and it will take a long time to complete your journey. Be aware that Corporation managers will not be accompanying you personally on your journey, so you will be on your own."
The day of departure came, and all the employees on their way out the door were given directions to their destination and their package--a great big box of chocolates. After the journey had begun, some of the employees started gazing wistfully at the package of chocolates they were carrying.
"This is a long journey," they thought, "and it would be nice to have one or two pieces of chocolate myself. There are a lot of chocolates in there, after all..."
Others were a bit bolder in grabbing some of the chocolates for themselves. "The Boss didn't specifically say NOT to eat the chocolates. In my view, he obviously thinks it's okay to have some chocolate ourselves or else he would have directly said otherwise, right?"
Still others thought to themselves, "I like chocolate--that's who I am. The Boss knew that when he hired me, so it's silly for him to expect that I would not eat some or all of the chocolates myself. If he cared so much about the chocolate he should have secured the package so I couldn't open it, or sent someone along to prevent me from eating any. If I eat some of the chocolate, it's really the Boss's fault for hiring me and giving me the opportunity to eat chocolate which he knew I liked..."
The journey did take a long time, but eventually all the employees made it to their destination. Upon entering this new building, they were surprised to find the Boss inside waiting for them.
"I will accept delivery of your packages now." he said, calling all the employees forward.
As it turned out, only a small group of employees had made it through the entire journey without eating any of the contents of the box they were given. A much larger percentage of the employees had grabbed at least a few of the chocolates to eat themselves along the way. Still others, in fact, had eaten several handfuls of chocolate--nearly half the box. There was even a significant number of employees who had eaten almost all the chocolates and handed back the nearly empty box unapologetically.
"Well, if you wanted us NOT to eat any chocolate, you should have said so directly." some said to the Boss, when delivering their box.
"Perhaps..." said the Boss.
"It's your fault really for trusting us with a box of chocolates," others said, "when you knew beforehand we liked chocolate. Why shouldn't we have some chocolate ourselves?"
"Why, indeed..." said the Boss.
"You were the one who gave us the box without anyone looking over our shoulder to prevent us from eating any, so you really can't blame us." other said, "You were the one who gave us the freedom to choose for ourselves."
"That's true..." said the Boss.
After accepting all the boxes, the Boss spoke to all the employees again.
"My task to you was simple: bring the package I had given you from there to here. It's true that I gave you complete control of the package during the journey and didn't prevent any of you from eating some or all of the chocolate..."
"Exactly!" said a voice among the employees, "So you can't really blame us for having some or all of the chocolate since you gave us the freedom to do so..."
"'Blame' is not the issue, my friend." said the Boss, "My main concern is the well-being of the Corporation. Why do you think I gave this task to all of you in the first place?"
The Boss then proceeded to announce a series of promotions and layoffs among the employees.
Now, which group do you think got promoted, and which group got laid off?
May 28, 2004 in Religion | Permalink
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Comments
An interesting parable. To my mind though, it needs amendment:
After The Boss gave them the package and told them where to go he brainwashed them with an X-Ray Machine of Forgetfulness as they walked out the door. They forgot who they were, where they worked,why they were here, where they were going, and what the chocolate was for. Its hard to fault a person for poor job performance when they didn't know they were employed.
That complicates the simple morality of your parable doesn't it?
Posted by: Noah | May 28, 2004 8:56:36 PM
Ahh...but that assumes that no one on Earth knows what we're supposed to be doing. Is that true? Or is it that people know, but find reasons not to do it...
Posted by: The Baron | May 28, 2004 9:25:51 PM
"Ahh...but that assumes that no one on Earth knows what we're supposed to be doing."
I don't think it does assume that. Rather, it assumes that we all start out not knowing.
Let's agree for now that there are people here who know that we are employed and how. There would be some who eat the chocolate though they know it is wrong. However, some of us do not know and have no reason to think that eating the chocolate (I'm not sure what this metaphorically symbolizes) is against The Boss's wishes.
I don't know why The Boss would want to wipe our memories of Him and His instructions but He did and that fact almost entirely destroys the power of your parable.
Posted by: Noah Langenwalter | Jun 2, 2004 7:25:28 AM
As I mentioned, the parable is simplistic on purpose (you could argue all parables are inherent oversimplifications of complex principles for clarity purposes). As written, the method of judgement was the same for all people because all people have inherently the same knowledge--which isn't quite accurate in 'real life', as you noted.
Still, you have to make a distinction between 'situational ignorance' and 'willful ignorance'. Suppose we said the specific instructions for the assignment as well as the potential rewards and punishments were spelled out in a company email, for example--which a number of employees didn't read. They would make their journey ignorant of a number of important points and will likely make mistakes because of it--but could still be held accountable from the Boss's standpoint for their own negligence.
The main point of the parable (such as it is) is that many people revere their freedom, but fail to recognize that actions have consequences which cannot be chosen. A similar example would be someone who studies and works hard in high school/college versus someone who goofs off all the time. The latter would probably argue that he is free to do whatever he wants--which is true--but then he has no foundation to complain when he finds that the first guy lands a good job and he can't. He may be ignorant of the importance of a high school diploma/college degree but it's a willful ignorance, because there's more than enough sources of information about why one should work hard in high school/college that he could have found out if he had wanted to.
As far as why God would remove memory of the pre-existence, that of course is one of the key questions in the plan of salvation and I don't know if I could fashion a satisfactory answer any more than anyone else. Perhaps there is an inherent difference between having things 'spelled out' for us from the beginning and figuring things out on our own. The resulting knowledge would be the same in both cases, but the latter case would have a big advantage in FUTURE progression because of the skills and desire demonstrated--which might be the point. I'm sure there are many things which we're incapable of comprehending right now, but if we learn how to learn spiritual things-- because God didn't tell us basic things He could have at the beginning--then we're better off when it comes time to learn things that He COULDN'T have told us about from the beginning...
Posted by: The Baron | Jun 2, 2004 1:06:10 PM
You are certainly right that for almost every parable to be useful, it must deal in generalities. It should seemlessly match the general characteristics of the situation being analogized though, and this is where I find the parable's deficiency.
Your concept of a company email attempts to correct this but falls a bit short because it maintains that the knowledge of The Boss's wishes is aquired before leaving the building and carried into the journey. This would be an incorrect analogy wouldn't it? Maybe if they recieved the email from The Boss during the juorney it would work.
Even better, it could be that The Boss lays out the rules beforhand at the office, then wipes everyone's mind clean as they exit. But, along the path between buildings He hides hints and clues to guide them on their way. Here's the best part: they don't know that they're supposed to be looking for clues! It's kind of a reality TV, Donal Trump, game show Easter special. (Please don't take this as condescension, I'm just being a bit silly. I am very much enjoying the argument.)
Seriously though, using this revised parable, The Boss made it incredibly difficult to do the job properly. He did ensure that only the best would remain His employees but His method for doing so seems somewhat malicious.
You are right -- there is a diffence between being ignorant of something you should be expected to know and being ignorant of something that you can't be expected to know. There is also a difference between these and being aware of an idea but choosing not to believe. I think those are the three instances applicable to employees in the parable.
I think this issue of initial ignorance is important. Like the rest of the plan of salvation it should be able to be explained and accounted for.
Posted by: Noah Langenwalter | Jun 3, 2004 4:27:03 PM
