Conservatives seem to view the world as wilderness. “It’s a jungle out there!” We’re weak, little “individual” animals whose only safety lies in family and big caches of food, rocks to throw at predators and sticks with which to hit or poke competitors or others who would try to take our stuff or hurt us in order to put us out of the way and take our foraging territory and living space.
Alternatively, “It’s a desert out there!” We have to keep a tight-knit group together and be strong enough to hold and defend an oasis. There are too few oases to go around, so we dole out water and keep a herd of camels handy to sell or rent to the poor nomads wandering the dunes who want to drive us off and take our oasis, camels and stuff. We conservatives know people want more “stuff” than dignity, justice or status allows. We know this because this is exactly what we want, but since we already have lots of stuff, we don’t “want” it as badly as those undeserving “have-nots” and losers out there. Gad, they don’t even have enough rags to wear on their heads or sheets to wrap in at night to shelter themselves from sand, wind or cold rain. Maybe they did have, but they were weak and somebody quicker and smarter stole them while they took a sand bath. Just goes to show you, you’ve got to keep alert and ready to fight like hell. Big defense.
Well, that’s the rock bottom conservative view of life. Don’t get caught on the bottom, or if you do, try to have someone underneath you for padding. It’s tough under a pile of “somebodies.” What’s the liberal view of life on Planet Earth? It’s totally different.
Liberals know the world is a vast ocean. We’re all at sea in one boat. It’s a strange boat, though. It’s a composite of two ships. The rear half is a late 16th Century galleon and the front half is a modern freighter. The galleon has a quarter deck and a poop deck. The freighter has a modern bridge. Democrats now man the bridge where the wheel and engine-order telegraph are placed. Republicans are at the stern, pretending to be in command on the quarter deck and enjoying the view from the poop deck, all of them comfortably high and dry. Democrats try to control direction and speed, but Republicans have charge of the stern anchor which they keep dragging along the bottom, often stopping progress completely.
Fox News people are Republicans but they are not on board the ship with everyone else. They are being towed behind the stern in a big dinghy, unaware of any other view and cognizant only of what Republicans call down to them. They don’t know yet that Democrats are in charge and would be running the ship but for Republican foolishness, hauling in or letting out anchor chain while this Fox News crowd rows backwards, trying to pull the ship toward yesterday. Even some of our otherwise intelligent, local people are infected unconsciously with this sad state of affairs. They can’t understand that, in spite of the Fox News illusion of having an extra boat, we are all in one thing, together. The quarter deck is morally obliged to submit itself to the bridge and the whole crew has an obligation not to let poor folks drown in the hold, or worse, stay forever down in the orlop and bilge which are terrible places, hard to keep dry in, and hard to climb out from, let alone stay clean in and dress nicely for job interviews.
On Tuesday, 11-13-12, Mona Charen wrote in the Benicia Herald’s Forum, “The Republican message of free enterprise, self-reliance and individual initiative is a harder sell than the Democratic message of ‘Let the government take care of you.’” Mona is a bright, pretty girl who has absorbed her junior class indoctrination without letting education humanize her to any notable extent, so it comes as no surprise she cannot interpret democracy clearly. Her world is a wilderness for individuals to conquer and a mob of subhumans, like Homo Erectus, to be fooled into salvation. It would shock her dear sweetness to learn how deeply in error her mind resides.
Again, Michael Barone, on Thursday, 11-15-12, comes out after the election full of how losing it is an illusion. It’s all a mere engineering problem that a little tinkering will set right, come next election cycle when it will be proven, The Right was right all along. He will neither hear nor listen, but I advise him to cut all ties to Karl Rove. Karl is a lost cause from which Michael will need all the distance he can get. As for Mona, she would be well advised to read everything by Al Gore she can find, or else wash her head out with Grandma’s Lye Soap. It gets rid of fleas, bad wine lees, whining and lies.
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