Rush’s Tom Sawyer offers a valuable philosophy lesson.
I love Rush and I recognized and appreciated Neil Peart’s intellectual and curious song lyrics. The following lyrics offer a great lesson in Philosophy and debate:
He knows changes aren’t permanent/ But change is/
Huh? My 13-year-old brain thought upon my first listen to the song back in 1981.
Over the decades, I began to develop my interpretation:
“Changes” represent specific, concrete changes, and “change is” represents the abstract concept of change.
A young man undergoes a change in his voice, but it will not last. However, the abstract idea of change is permanent.
Poetically, this is brilliant because both changes and change is are homonyms yet are distinctly diverse in nature.
Let’s apply this to mistaking judging a person versus a person’s actions or decisions:
Behavioral problems cannot be avoided, but there’s something even more important: when I discipline a student, I always need to remember that I need to discipline the student’s actions and behaviors and NOT the student nor the student’s parents.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO SEPARATE THE ACTIONS FROM THE INDIVIDUAL OR INDIVIDUALS.
When district attorneys and court judges go easy on repeat offenders (and even repeat violent offenders), they also need to learn the same lesson. They think that by easing up on them, or making excuses for them, they are helping them but not only are they not helping them; they are hurting everyone around them. A big part of any leadership position is making tough decisions that may result in unpopular situations. Tough. That is part of it. Now is it acceptable to give someone a break? Of course, but the focus should be observing patterns and applying common sense. We all make mistakes, but when mistakes become repeated excuses, chaos ensues.
I have learned not to assume that your opponent has the same definition or meaning of a title, so before a debate occurs, it is better to hash these things out first so that we can have healthier, more constructive exchanges of ideas.
“THE RIVER!”
( I apologize for that “exercise in self-indulgence)”
Rush fans will understand.
