Monday, April 14, 2008

Parable of the Blood Bank

To what shall I compare this generation?

It is like a blood bank whose directors, very reluctantly, voted to seat a vampire on their board. Even though their philosophy of saving blood for medical use conflicted with the vampire's goals, they agreed that they had to be open to alternate points of view.

After each board meeting, the vampire used to say to one of the other board members - a different one each time - "We should really get to know each other better. Why not come over to my place for dinner?" It was a funny thing, though: everyone who had dined with the vampire supported his investment strategies from then on.

The day finally came when 51% of the board were allied with the vampire. At the very next board meeting, they voted to kick everyone else off the board, cancel all future orders for medical distribution, turn the bloodmobile into a mobile recruitment office, and hold a monthly kegger in the bank vault. The fired board members were understandably discouraged - some of them had been with the blood bank for many years - but the vampire's position was firm: "Your dissent is bad for business!"

Let him hear who has ears to hear.

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