Success and Punishment

With regards to the French people after the revolution, Edmund Burke said that "they have found their punishment in their success." He went on to make a list of ways that the French society was worse off post-revolution. Increased poverty levels, overturned laws, and lack of industrial strength were among the few he listed. He believed that the after-affects of the revolution were serving as punishment for the actions taken and the warnings left unheeded during the revolution.

When you were a kid did your parents ever tell you to do something (or not to do something) and you disobeyed, and the consequences brought about by your disobedience were deemed sufficient punishment for your offense? I think of a mom and her son in a grocery store. Before the shopping begins the mother tells her son to stay with her at all times and not to wander off. At first the boy obeys, but then he spots the Coco Puffs and just has to have them, the problem is, they're three aisles over. But it's ok! Because he knows he can run over and get them and be back before she even notices he's gone. He devises his plan and, making a mad dash across the store, passing the canned goods aisle, passing the bread aisle, he grabs his precious Coco Puffs and retreats back across to the starting point. He grins at his own cleverness and at how perfectly he executed his plan. He then turns to put the precious cereal in the cart only to discover, much to his dismay, that the cart is no longer there. And, to his even GREATER dismay, neither is his mother. Sheer panic grips his little heart and for a few moments he wishes he'd never seen Coco Puffs in his life. Now, after a few minutes his mother comes back and finds him, whimpering and scared, clutching his Coco Puffs for dear life. He starts crying with relief and then, with tears in his eyes, he looks up and says "Am I going to get a spanking for this?" But his mother, realizing that the fear he had experienced would probably be sufficient to keep him from doing it again does not spank him.

I can look back at times in my life where situations, similar to the one above, happened. Where my parents cautioned me against doing something and I did it anyway. The funny thing is I always end up wishing I had just listened to them in the first place...

(I commented on AArnold's post.)