The Last Temptation
Motivation can matter as much as action in the longer run. Hence, a good act can be a great evil.
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain: Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.— T.S. Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
Never in my experience has this moral and societal fact been more poignantly exemplified than by the recently reported actions of a 10 year-old girl from Thornton, CO, Tatum Gonzales. She did a deed that was ever so right, but did so for reasons that were so very wrong.
Tatum Gonzales called the whole family together on her 10th birthday but not for the reason you might think.
“Make a change to the world,” she said as she stood in her mom’s Thornton kitchen, making a turkey and cheese sandwich.
Tatum’s only wish on her 10th birthday was to help feed the homeless.
“I don’t think it’s right that all of us get to eat and they don’t,” she said. “They might be starving so I just thought of this idea for my birthday.”
Family and friends filled the kitchen, put on plastic gloves and pitched in to make 100 sack lunches. They even decorated each of the bags.
I cannot see young Ms. Gonzales act as anything other than a beautiful act of kindness and charity. There’s no doubt in my mind that she did the right thing. And yet, her own words, “I don’t think it’s right that all of us get to eat and they don’t,” show that she did it for the wrong – indeed, one of the worst – reasons imaginable.
Her belief that is not right that her and her family have their basic needs met – by her parents’ efforts and labors in all likelihood – so long as others do not enjoy these things is horrific to me – as it should be horrific to, not just every American, but every freeborn man or woman on this world. This, the belief of child that they don’t deserves and have no right to what their parents have earned, is the epitome of evils that Liberals, Progressives, and SJWs commit each and every day.
Charity, largess, munificence, beneficence – call it what you will – are great things, laudable in nigh on every case, even those which are poorly thought out and/or mis-aimed. To see it in a young child should be a thing of joy; a thing that restores some measure of hope for Man. And that is what is so evil and so horrifying about this. This is the ultimate corruption of the virtue of generosity. This is the greatest treason.
Not, of course, is this to say that this is her treason. No, she is one who has been betrayed. She has been tempted beyond her means as a young child by others, most likely the (mis)education system and the media. She is one of far too many victims of the Liberals’ and Progressives systematic abuse and corruption of our nation’s children.
Yes, of all the temptations that the devils of Socialism – these hellborn demons of “Social Justice” – try our resolve with is the greatest treason of doing what we think is right for the wrong, evil reasons.
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Tags: America | Charity | Children | Classism | Colorado | Education | Ethics & Morality | Liberals | Parenting | Privilege | Progressives | Socialism | Society | Tatum Gonzales | Thornton | Wealth
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