Monday, June 13, 2005
THE MULCAHY PRINCIPLE
I can always tell when my buddy Ron has succumbed to the temptation to listen to talk radio. Our Saturday morning breakfast conversations always become interesting. I don't know how the subject came up, but he said he didn't understand why it is that black people get pissed off and start throwing bricks and burning buildings. White people don't do that he says (he apparently has never been to East lansing after a loss to Michigan, but I digress).
I told him it was all about power, who has it, who doesn't. It is bad enough to be a member of a group that is unempowered. It is worse if you feel the group in power isn't listening to or giving credence to your complaints. Rioting is a last ditch effort to get those in power to pay attention to your plight. It would make no sense for white guys to throw rocks through windows. It would be counter productive. Why would they? After all, WHITE GUYS OWN THE FUCKING WINDOWS! I told him to consider it in terms of "the Mulcahy Principle"
The Mulcahy Principle is one of those great little snippets of pop culture that unintentionally contain tremendous wisdom. It was uttered by the chaplain of the 4077 M*A*S*H, Fr. Francis Mulcahy.
The scene is this: The good father, for the umpteenth time, has once again been overlooked for promotion to captain. He blows his cork and goes from being mild mannered confidant to the ultimate cantankerous confessor. He snaps at the surgeons, yells at the clerks, has Hotlips in tears. At one point he tells a pair of feuding Greek and Turkish patients that he can whip them both with one hand tied behind his back, and if they don't pipe down he is going to give them both "a good thrashing"
Soon, the camp's commandant, Col. Potter is on the phone, calling every guy with a star on his shoulder he has ever come in contact with in his 40 years in the army. In desperation, he even tries to call McArthur himself.
In the end, the good father gets his promotion and is made Captain. It is in pondering his experience that he utters those immortal words, the principle that bears his name, which is.... "you know, the meek may inherit the earth... BUT IT'S THE CRABBY WHO GET THINGS DONE!"
Truer words were never spoken!
Now cooking at THE CHURCH POTLUCK: STRAWBERRY DIP
I told him it was all about power, who has it, who doesn't. It is bad enough to be a member of a group that is unempowered. It is worse if you feel the group in power isn't listening to or giving credence to your complaints. Rioting is a last ditch effort to get those in power to pay attention to your plight. It would make no sense for white guys to throw rocks through windows. It would be counter productive. Why would they? After all, WHITE GUYS OWN THE FUCKING WINDOWS! I told him to consider it in terms of "the Mulcahy Principle"
The Mulcahy Principle is one of those great little snippets of pop culture that unintentionally contain tremendous wisdom. It was uttered by the chaplain of the 4077 M*A*S*H, Fr. Francis Mulcahy.
The scene is this: The good father, for the umpteenth time, has once again been overlooked for promotion to captain. He blows his cork and goes from being mild mannered confidant to the ultimate cantankerous confessor. He snaps at the surgeons, yells at the clerks, has Hotlips in tears. At one point he tells a pair of feuding Greek and Turkish patients that he can whip them both with one hand tied behind his back, and if they don't pipe down he is going to give them both "a good thrashing"
Soon, the camp's commandant, Col. Potter is on the phone, calling every guy with a star on his shoulder he has ever come in contact with in his 40 years in the army. In desperation, he even tries to call McArthur himself.
In the end, the good father gets his promotion and is made Captain. It is in pondering his experience that he utters those immortal words, the principle that bears his name, which is.... "you know, the meek may inherit the earth... BUT IT'S THE CRABBY WHO GET THINGS DONE!"
Truer words were never spoken!
Now cooking at THE CHURCH POTLUCK: STRAWBERRY DIP
