House of Eratosthenes

It occurs to me that the root of our ideological split here, is that liberals are acting on a primal urge. The presentation at any given time is based on a future event which, if it were to unfold the way they say (and if you were to remember history), would confound presentations that come afterward. The liberal has a proposal. He looks around and sees that we are living in an antagonistic relationship with each other; his proposed idea would put us into a symbiotic one. You spew carbon and are therefore killing the planet. You are keeping the money you make and are denying it to “needed social programs.” You aren’t paying enough tax on your income; your purchases; your gasoline; your tolls. You are killing the Iraqis. You are poisoning the caribou. The oil companies, in turn, are poisoning you. And if you have a gun, it’s just a matter of time before you shoot me with it.

The conservatives are putting out the message that we are already living in a symbiotic relationship. I breathe out and I spew my carbon, it’s a wonderful thing because the trees and plants need the carbon for photosynthesis. Notice that science, on this point, sides with the conservatives. The oil companies supply the gasoline I need to get to work, earn my money and live my life. Hard facts and evidence, here again, side with the conservatives. Furthermore, if the taxes are raised we’re just going to buy less stuff…and if the taxes are raised on the oil companies, they’ll just pass that on to the consumer. Once again: Economic science and historical evidence side with the conservatives.

The liberal says, enact my proposal and we’ll enter into a symbiotic relationship. Next week, the liberal will have another proposal, and offer the same pitch — he won’t admit the last proposal failed to get us into this symbiotic relationship. He won’t offer to roll back this previous failed proposal. To our discredit, nobody will call on him to do so…

The conservative says we’re already in the symbiotic relationship. You are good for me. I am good for you. We can all go on doing exactly what we’re doing. The only thing we should really change is to get those damn liberals to stop voting.

Reason, fact, logic and common sense all side with the conservative. Time after time after time after time after time. The liberal pretends it isn’t so, something about “no WMD in Iraq” or “no connection between Saddam and 9/11.” He goes through this phony little puppet show of pretending to embrace reality. But his proposals all have it in common, that they say we’re not yet in a symbiotic relationship, and this latest proposal will put us in one.

And it never works.

Next time the liberal has another proposal, he’s the first to admit that the previous one didn’t work.

It isn’t a plan, it’s an itch, an insecurity, a spectacle of ignorance. Liberals lack the cognitive ability to understand they’re in a symbiotic relationship, unless they can actually see someone authoring and implementing a plan to put us in one. Being born into one, is something that is beyond their comprehension. They see conflict where it doesn’t exist.

Update: Thinking this through some more…I’m aware of just a few more situations in which the liberal mind will tolerate the recognition of a symbiotic relationship. I can think of three. This is an exhaustive list.

1. The above mentioned situation in which a symbiotic relationship is a near-future product, to be harvested up thanks to the liberal idea whose seeds we are supposed to be sowing now. This doesn’t really count, because it of course spares the liberal from the sentiments and behavior which customarily go with a present and active symbiotic relationship.
2. A symbiotic relationship with animals. You know…caribou, polar bears, snail darters, spotted owls. Or, space aliens, or people who look significantly different. Think Louis Gossett in a rubber mask in “Enemy, Mine.” This is a cosmetic symbiotic relationship, cultivated for the purpose of being paraded around. Rich white straight guy runs a company that spews toxic waste killing cold-blooded ugly spiky things, no public-relations benefit…rich white straight guy runs a company that spews toxic waste killing furry, warm-blooded cute things…much better. Now the rich white straight guy is easily portrayed as a terrible person, by means of some heroic figure forming a bond with the warm blooded cute things. This doesn’t really count either, because the purpose of the relationship is to hold a third party in contempt. The liberal doesn’t need to care about the supposed object of this symbiosis; and, very frequently, doesn’t.
3. The relationship formed with others of like minds and interests. This is what liberalism is all about, post Wagner Act. You work for me, I give you two months vacation out of the year, you think you should get four. I tell you to go pound sand. You form a union with nine other people who also work for me and think they should get four months vacation…now I can’t tell you to go pound sand. This counts — the ten of you have a a symbiotic relationship with each other, in the truest sense. But it doesn’t exactly inspire warm feelings, because if any one among the ten of you say “you know, I think two months vacation is plenty” the other nine of you are going to rip him a new asshole.

So that is how liberals see symbiotic relationships. They are pipe dreams, just tidbits of fiction cooked up about the future to sell a plan that would otherwise be revealed instantly as a bad idea; they are asymmetrical relationships with decidedly inferior beings to be paraded around to show how the liberal is a Good Person^tm; or, they are groupings in which the collective bullies and coerces the individual, and the individual is expected to follow a bunch of rules for the benefit of the collective, which will then mess up the individual if he doesn’t toe the line.

Other than those three classes, I can’t think of a single example of a liberal being allowed to believe in a symbiotic relationship. Because any other specimen of symbiotic faith would make him into something like a conservative.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

SymbiosisFriday, March 21st, 2008

Symbiosis
Friday, March 21st, 2008