Getting Somewhere

Most, if not all, of us are familiar with Alice in Wonderland, but what we may not know is that it was written by Charles Dodgson, a mathematician at Christ Church, who first told the unusual story to the daughters of Dean Henry Lidell as they were rowed down the Thames River in England.

Dodgson used the pseudonym Lewis Carroll when writing the story and there is no evidence at all to suggest that Dodgson was a recreational user of opium or laudanum as was the case with Edgar Allen Poe; still, the rumors persist and are referenced in the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane in 1967 and again in The Matrix when it was suggested by Morpheus that Neo take the blue pill and the story ends. However, it may say more about those making the rumors than about either the story or the author.

I would like to draw your attention to the question Alice asked the Cheshire Cat and the subsequent exchange of dialogue:

Alice:  Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?

Cheshire Cat:  That depends a great deal on where you want to go.

Alice:  I don't much care where...

Cheshire Cat:  Then it doesn't matter which way you go...

Alice:  ...so long as I get somewhere.

Cheshire Cat:  ...oh, you are sure to do that, if you walk long enough.

While this exchange may seem a little silly and quite bizarre, many of us live our lives exactly as Alice describes, never much caring which way we go; and, most of us do in fact get somewhere if we live long enough, unfortunately, it is typically not where we want to be after arriving there.

Consequently, we demand that the Federal Government take care of us, never admitting our own careless and reckless stupidity.  If the Federal Government cannot afford to take care of us through entitlements, we demand that the wealthy take care of us because we helped them get to where they are by buying products we either did not need or could not afford.

And, down the rabbit hole we all went.