Three Laws of Human Nature

I’m not all that smart. I’m pretty bright, but no genius. I’ll never get a Ph.D. in anything (not that I want to). So, I try to operate on short pithy sayings.

One of them is “Silence is acquiescence.” If people don’t protest when accused of something, then they most probably did it. When O.J. Simpson was told his ex-wife had been murdered, he didn’t even ask which ex-wife. He wasn’t upset and didn’t protest at all.

Of course, everyone knows the reason why.

But then, on the other hand, there is the saying, “Me thinks thou doth protest too much.” How in the world can you have both “Silence is acquiescence” and “Me thinks thou doth protest too much” if they cover the same subject, say murder? Either you say nothing at all or else you protest too much?

Apparently so. Maybe not necessarily for murder, but for other things. I keep thinking of Evangelical preachers who are so obsessed with disapproval of other people’s sex lives and then get caught with boytoys or hookers. Or as one wag commented, “Meth and man ass.”

The one sleaze ball who sticks in my was a prosecuting attorney named George Peach, who when he was in St. Louis made a career out of jailing hookers (a misdemeanor – one year in prison) and putting their customers’ names and pictures in the newspaper.

Lo and behold! Turns out George had been using public funds to see hookers himself. For about ten years. He fell into a sting operation and was taped asking a hooker for a blowjob.

When someone goes out of their way – and I mean way, way out of their way – to protest something, they are fighting against it in themselves.

The third saying is, “It’s your fault! You made me do it!” The first defense many people engage in is to blame their problems on someone else. You ask anyone in prison for murder or brutal assault and almost all of them will claim their victim made them do it.

I’m sure there are more laws, but I have to wait until these three sink permanently into my brain.