The Button

I’m not really interested in current events right now, so I’m going to talk philosophy.

You know a while ago they had that movie The Box about how a couple who were presented with a box that had a button in it, and if they pressed the button they got a million dollars but someone they didn’t know would die. Instead of putting up the trailer, here’s my favorite parody of it (actually one my favorite parody videos of all time; just wish it were of a movie more people knew):

Anyway, when I saw that movie, I didn’t think much of it other than that the premise wasn’t enough to carry a whole movie and would have worked better as a Twilight Zone episode (which I believe it was). But now I’ve realized what a great metaphor that is for government spending.

You have in front of you a button labeled “Free Stuff.” If you hit it, you can get all manners of free things from the government like food or birth control or vouchers for electric cars. But someone you don’t know will suffer. You don’t know who will suffer — or even how many. Businesses could be destroyed, lives ruined, whole industries could crumble. But you’ll get free stuff. Do you hit the button?

That answer is many people will whack that button like they’re one of those drug-addicted rats in an experiments given a button to press to administer heroin. That’s what we have to work against. We have to make people morally sound enough that when given a button where they could hurt people to get free stuff, they’re disgusted by the premise. Of course, in the movie, it was well established someone would die when they hit the button, but I don’t think a lot of people understand that with government spending. That what we have to help people understand.

8 Comments

  1. Unfortunately the rule says “someone you don’t know will die” and I know almost exclusively Democrats. Is there a button that only kills people you know? Oh, right, I forgot- it’s call a trigger.

  2. I like the idea of a second video, but this is a complex compilation of experiments which have been successfully played out before in real-life:

    (a) Press a button, get a pellet.
    (b) Administer electric shock to someone if an authority figure says it’s ok.
    (c) Demonize the ‘other’ who is getting the shocks, suffer no consequences.

  3. Liberals would push the button and then vote for the government to pass a law that nothing bad is allowed to happen due to pushing the button. Anything you come up with, Frank, will be met with a law to address it.

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