What Will You Give Me?

I was in the mall the other day when I saw a mother trying to deal with what one might call a recalcitrant child. Let’s just say that the little girl (perhaps three years old) didn’t think much of any of her mother’s suggestions, requests or demands. While not giving forth a temper tantrum, her feet were firmly planted and the lower lip projected quite noticeably. It was a pose that probably every normal child has been in at one time or another. But it wasn’t the child’s behavior that really drew in my attention as I watched from the bench on which I was sitting. What I really took notice of was what the mother finally resorted to. Bribery.

Having exchanged her cooperation in trying on another pair of shoes for a newly promised ice cream cone, the little girl pulled in her lip and began walking with her mother quite pleasantly. One might even entertain the idea that the two of them had been through the routine at least once before.

Buying people off. That is what it amounts to, and it happens all the time. It may happen between parent and child. Sometimes it is boss and employee. It is all too frequent between politicians and lobbyists or politicians and voters (and vice-versa). Sad to say, but it can occasionally happen between teacher and students. There are probably a number of reasons it happens, but it seems unfortunate that it happens at all. At its core it almost always amounts to the selling out of one principle or another for some immediate gratification.

One of my favorite authors once wrote, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men-- men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. “ E. G. White, Education, p. 57.

To my mind, there must be a corollary: The second greatest want of the world is the want of men (and women, of course) who will not attempt to “buy” the cooperation, influence or support of others.

Standing up for principles – what a novel thought. Cooperation bought with ice cream today will require the addition of sprinkles eventually, probably sooner than later.

I’ll take double-dip dark chocolate fudge with that!

Dr. G