Sunday, December 1, 2013

Fable of the Gullible Gull

In the Reader's Digest, October 1950 edition, the Fable of the Gullible Gull is shared as a warning against dependency. The story is told of great flocks of sea gulls starving despite the good fishing waters nearby. Why were they starving? They were starving, because although there were plenty of fish to eat, the gulls did not know how to fish.

For generations the gulls depended upon a fleet of shrimping boats which would toss out the scraps to the gulls, but then the fleet moved.

"The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets. Now the Sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the 'something for nothing' lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout."

The fable concluded with this, "Let's not be gullible gulls. We must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence."

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