I’m finishing up my mental causation paper this morning, so all I have to offer is this silly joke:
Jesse Jackson was visiting an elementary school and he visits one of the classes. The class is in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asks the Rev. Jackson if he would like to lead the discussion on the word “tragedy.” So Jesse asks the class for an example of a “tragedy.”
One little boy stands up and offers: “If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks him dead, that would be a tragedy.”
“No” says Jesse Jackson,”that would be an accident.”
A little girl raises her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove off a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not, ” explains the Rev. Jackson. “That’s what we would call a great loss.”
The room goes silent. No other children volunteer.
Rev. Jackson searches the room. “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally in the back of the room a very small boy raises his hand. In a quiet soft voice he says: “If a jet carrying the Rev. and Mrs. Jackson were struck by a missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy.”
“Fantastic!” exclaims Jackson,
“That’s right. Can you tell us why that would be a tragedy?”
“Well”, says the boy, “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”
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