Cornithaca County

Family Fables – “The Rice Grain Moral”

The Minister of Education had brought new teachers and ideas to the schools in the kingdom, and done such a good job that the King told him to name his reward. • The Minister asked just for a few grains of rice in the following manner: pointing to a chessboard he said, “Put a single grain of rice on the first chess square and double it on every consequent one.” • The King laughed and readily agreed • Then the Minister continued: “Oh my King, that reward would add up to an impossible sum, far greater than all the rice your kingdom could produce in many centuries!” • The King quickly realized he would be unable to fulfill his promise; and was so angered at being tricked that he proclaimed: “None of my people shall rest until they have completed this task!” • • Moral: Rationality is a virtue of the weak. • • What’s so scary about fables? The same thing that’s scary about wisdom; it shows up the pretentions of the self-serving and the fool. • Cornithaca County seeks to suppress the lessons of history and the rationality of wisdom, and substitute their new paradigm: “Doctrine = Wisdom.”