Dennis Moore

In an earlier blog entry I mentioned the British comedy troupe "Monty Python's Flying Circus", and the indelible effect they have left upon my thinking.

One of their sketches that often comes into my mind involves the (fictional?) highwayman Dennis Moore. (As far as I have been able to determine, there was no actual historical highwayman named Dennis Moore.) Like Robin Hood, Dennis Moore robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. One of the sources of humor in Monty Python's Dennis Moore is that he always robbed from the SAME rich, and gave to the SAME poor ... with the result that eventually the poor became wealthy, while the rich were left destitute. Even then, Dennis Moore continued to attempt to rob the same rich people, who by now had nothing left for him to rob, while the formerly-poor people now lived in luxury, yet still awaited more loot from Dennis Moore.

When someone finally points out the error of Dennis Moore's ways, he responds, "Wait a tic ... blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought." In the final scene, he "robs" another coach, but this time he simply has everyone reveal their valuables, and he attempts to redistribute them more evenly among the coach occupants.

The thing that makes me think of this sketch so often is the fact that LOTS of things are trickier than people think, and sometimes real life offers examples that are practically as laughable as Monty Python. Often an action has unintended -- yet in retrospect, totally predictable -- consequences, such as cutting down a tree and having it fall and crush something.

I doubt that the Monty Python folks were attempting to make a direct political statement, but many of the things that are trickier than you think actually involve government attempts to redistribute wealth. Raising taxes often reduces government revenue, while decreasing taxes often increases it. Attempts to take money from "the rich" often end up hurting "the poor" more than "the rich" (for example, anything that decreases corporate profits can lead to lay-offs).

Another thing that is trickier than you think is the relationship between various life forms in an ecosystem. Stereotypically, but also truly, if you eliminate the cats, the mouse population may explode. On the other hand, if you specifically ADD cats, to get rid of the mice, you may also get rid of the birds. There are many examples around the world of a plant or animal being introduced to an area where it is not native, or a plant or animal being eliminated from an area where it IS native, often with disastrous results.

A few years ago National Public Radio did a series on worldwide efforts to end child labor. It turns out that often, attempts to stop child labor in places like factories results in the child and their family being devastated by the loss of income generated by the formerly-laboring child. The child and their family may simply starve to death, or be driven into even worse circumstances than the original child labor, such as sexual slavery. Granted, this example is not particularly funny.

If you watch your own life, you will find examples of things being trickier than you thought. Hopefully, at least some of them will be funny.

Truth is complicated.