Stone Philosophy Quiz #1

Hypothetical Case Study: Jane and Joe T.

Joe and Jane T. live in a decent house with a decent yard. Joe has a decent job, earns a decent income. Jane stays home, raises decent kids, keeps a decent garden. Jane and Joe have a decent life.

One day, Joe’s friend Sam asked him if he’d like to have a dog. Sam explained that Sox needs a home. If Joe doesn’t take him, Sox will be “put down.”

Now Joe and Jane are decent folk who definitely don’t like the idea of the dog being killed. They’d feel sort of responsible for it. They also think about Sam’s assertion that Sox will make a good watch dog. They’d never been burgled before but a little precaution won’t hurt. So they take in the dog. Jane builds a doghouse and they fence in an area for Sox to run.

There’s just one important thing they aren’t told. Sox is a mean dog. He will literally bite the hand that feeds him. Oh well, maybe with time….

Then one day a friend of Sam’s shows up with a similar story. He has two dogs, Elvira and Echo, needing a home. Decent people that they are, Jane and Joe take them in. They hope companions will mellow out Sox. They enlarge the doghouse and expand the fence perimeter.

Of course, Echo and Elvira are no friendlier than Sox, though the three of them get along together only too well.

To make a long story short, the kindhearted T. family now has a large and growing pack of snarling, vicious beasts. The only time they’re quiet is when eating, and they seem to be hungry all the time. The only way you can possibly approach any of them is with soft, friendly words of praise and appreciation, while offering a big juicy steak in your heavily armored gauntlet.

The entire once-decent yard is now pack habitat. The garage has been converted into dog housing. Jane’s garden is gone but she no longer has time for that sort of thing anyway. The cost of feeding and housing these animals has forced Jane to take an outside job.

When this all started, Jane and Joe T. didn’t want, had never even considered getting a dog. Now, almost everything they do is in support of this savage pack of insatiable, ravenous hellhounds.

Question 1.  What should Joe and Jane do now?

Question 2.  What should Jane and Joe have done when Sam first offered to give them Sox?

Question 3.  The author wrote this story as a parable. What is he trying to say?

Question 4.  Do you think it’s a valid parable?

Question 5.  Explain your answer to Question 4.