The Hermit Crab Shell Game
There is a simple shell game
Which defies simple logic
While eye’s are focused on the shell
The pea changes it’s lodgings
This game is used in politics
In PR, and religion
To gain undeserved favor
Or fan prejudiced cognition
For like the simple hermit crab
That moves from home to home
You can’t ascribe acts to a shell
But occupants that roam
You can’t blame a religion
For the sins of past inhabitants
Or take revenge on nations
For the acts of long dead residents
A party can’t take credit
For good deeds of member martyrs
Nor blame opposing parties
For past despot’s broken charters
Beware of those that hide within
The shell of institutions
And those which defame other
Under labeled persecutions
They deceive and are deceived
As the blind that lead the blind
Divorced from truth’s reality
Partitioned in the mind
We group and name and classify
By given set criteria
Then disregard induction rules
Deducing by minutia
Apples and oranges both are fruit
But they are not the same
It’s true they share some properties
But not all I maintain
So ground yourself to bedrock truth
Beyond associations
Beyond the shell of labels
And their content’s expiration
See individuals as they are
As separate and unique
Their works and words will tell you more
Than spurious critique
A shell game is a classic ruse
The wise discard the shell
Till plain as day the truth display
Peabrains can tell as well
