The little pigs are their own worst enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I want to support the little pigs. Plenty of folks like me sympathize with them, but their own actions are the biggest detriment to their cause.
The little pigs make a dramatic show of their new tactics. Fresh brick, rebar construction, double-paned windows—shiny new toys they are only too happy to play with.
What some little pigs do not understand is that they are alienating potential allies. Nobody wants to see a house made of brick. It’s selfish, unsightly, and turns would-be supporters into opponents.
Past movements were much more respectful. It seems like only yesterday the little pigs were building houses out of straw. Everyone on both sides of the issue understood where the little pigs were coming from. We might not have agreed on everything, but at least we saw eye to eye.
When the little pigs moved on to sticks, some were skeptical, but I knew the piglets were doing what they felt was right. I was a whippersnapper once too. As the saying goes, if you’re not liberal when you’re young, you don’t have a heart. But let’s not forget the second part: if you’re not conservative when you’re old, you don’t have a brain.
That’s what I see in these new brick houses. Youthful abandon run amok. A small number of radicals willing to sacrifice the greater good just to make a stubborn point.
I have listened to the little pigs. I have heard the insensitive way they respond to critics. “We need stronger homes,” they say. “The Big Bad Wolf blew right through our past two,” they cry.
These kinds of tantrums do nothing to win hearts and minds.
In any movement, image is everything. When our neighbors see the little pigs with a wheelbarrow full of bricks, I shudder to think what their reaction might be. I shudder still to imagine all the poor, reasonable little pigs who want peaceful homes of stick and straw.
Why not build houses out of papier–mâché? Everyone likes papier–mâché. Heck, let’s grant the radicals some leeway and let them build homes out of balsa wood. That’s a compromise we could all enjoy.
The little pigs still have time to change. History will be the judge, and they have every opportunity to do the right thing. But I won’t hold my breath.
