The rest drown. It actually did occur to me in the shower just how heartless (but also accidentally accurate) that old conservative political adage really is.
The rest drown. It actually did occur to me in the shower just how heartless (but also accidentally accurate) that old conservative political adage really is.
You’re misinterpreting the metaphor. There isno separate class of boatless people in the metaphor, the boats are the people.
OP is pointing out there is another layer to the metaphor, which is quite pertinent
I think we’re making the same point. In the real world, there very much are boatless people. Or non-boats, if you prefer. Those non-boats don’t fare so well when the tide rises, fyi.
For idiots like me a good example of this analogy is LeBron James. When he is on your team you all objectively get better.
LeBron is the rising tide. His teammates are the boats.
I’d suggest that a good coach may be a better fit? Le Bron could join an U12 team and dominate for them, but they individually won’t get better. If he leaves youre back to being the original U12 team.
But a good coach can improve each individual player, such that even after the coach leaves that are a better team still.
(I am not a basketball person, I know he was a player, but did he ever coach? If so, I retract my suggestion).
It also apparently originates from a christian saying, and spent a long time as a regional adage before JFK (or more accurately a speechwriter) turned it into an explicitly macroeconomic political message.
To the extent that it is used as a conservative political saying, that’s a fairly recent development, and one that is intentionally calling back to a moderate democrat.
I’ve often heard it used as a way to define a class of students in the educational space, whereby any influx of new information is the tide. The only thing we can do as our own shipmaster is to help the others patch their vessels as we all learn and grow together through the unspoken knowledge of the seas.
As one born where shoreman are the lifeblood of a community, the old adage fortunately isn’t as tainted as you’ve made concern.
It’s funny to read the different contexts in which people have encountered the quote. I first heard it from a hundred-millionaire Republican congressman, sorta chuckling to himself.