The Wisdom of Mr. T.

This is several years old, but it speaks to me. For real: there’s some genuine philosophy there.

QUESTION: Mr. T, why do you pity the fool?

MR. T: That is a good question. That is a good question and a legitimate question. And I’m the man to answer it. You pity the fool because you don’t want to beat up a fool. You know, pity is between sorry and mercy. See, if you pity him, you know, you won’t have to beat him up. So that’s why I say fools, you gotta give another chance because they don’t know no better. That’s why I pity them.

Or, as William Shakespeare put it:

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute of God himself;
And earthly power doth then show like God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

Sucka.

The New Ledger will eventually have the link up, no doubt. Until then, you can still watch Mr. T Pity The Fool.  William Shakespeare?  Not so much, although he has a cameo in the very-quasi-Lovecraftian-detective-magic-comedy Witch Hunt*: Hollywood decided to bring him back from the dead to write screenplays because, well, wouldn’t you?

Moe Lane

*It is downright criminal that this movie and its prequel (Cast a Deadly Spell) are only available on VHS.

Criminal.