Our Desk | There are no free lunches

Renato Marques

This obvious quote has passed our lips every now and then.
Nevertheless, many people keep dreaming about “free lunches” (and dinners) and thinking that the big deal about life is really to enjoy these “freebies” whenever you can.
On a related note, a few days ago, I was reading one of those short stories that always feature a moral lesson. This is how the story went:
In a university, a student unexpectedly interrupted the class to ask the professor, “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?”
The professor thought it was a joke and expected a funny punchline. The young man replied that it was not a joke and launched into his dissertation:
“You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and spreading some corn on the ground. Pigs will come daily to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you start building a fence next to the place where they are used to eating.
“They might find it strange in the beginning but once they get used to the fence, they will return to eat the corn and then you can continue to build the fence. You repeat this process over time until you manage to install the four sides of the fence around the pigs. Then you install a gate at one end.
“Since the pigs are already used to the free corn and the fences, they will start coming through the gate. That is when you close the gate and catch the whole group.
It’s as simple as that. In a second, the pigs have lost their freedom. They will continue to run in circles inside the fence, but you do not need to worry about it because they have already been subjected to your will.
“Once they get used to their new condition they will eat the free corn again. They get so used to it that they forget how to hunt for themselves, so they accept slavery; moreover, with time, they will start to show gratitude to their captors and generation after generation will happily face the slaughter.”
The young man continued, saying to the professor, “This is exactly what I see happening in your country, in your territory or in your city with its people. Where dictatorial governments, or any other kind of leaders, often hide under the blanket of ‘democracy’, giving them free corn long enough to achieve systematic meekness.
“Each new ‘brilliant leadership’ disguises his aims in aid programmes, giving away money, forgiveness, protection laws and subsidies for anything; establishing Social Welfare Programmes, holding parties, fairs and or festivals, transportation, all ‘free’! The rulers offer happiness to the people used to this “free corn”, but in fact, they strip us of our ability to be critical thinkers and entrepreneurs.
“In the end, with the clear idea in mind that ‘nothing is free’, you realize that all these wonderful “help programmes” from the “big brothers” are, in fact, a big problem, because they establish a contradictory idea that opposes the future, that opposes development, evolution and even democracy.”
Coming back to where I started, I would say that I am pretty sure that you have all heard that other famous quote: “all the best things in life are free.” You had better think twice about that one too, because “there are no free lunches”, I say.