Goodbye America
Society is about cooperation. Right? I mean the only reason we live side-by-side and make agreements to act a certain way in public is that all benefit. We build roads, electrical grids, water sanitation, law enforcement systems, education systems, etc. Society is a human-to-human symbiotic relationship. We each gain more, more comfort and security, more wealth and prosperity when we work together.
So, we concentrate family into tribes, tribes into states, and states into nations for all the reasons listed above. And then it happens. Some of those within the nation decide they are not benefiting as much as others. It’s not fair. Something needs to change. And that something are those agreements we made long ago, as we evolved from family, to tribe, to state, to nation.
How do we respond to those among us who declare boldly “Party before Country,” or “Tribe before the Nation?” Our symbiotic relationship turns parasitic. What was built together will now be picked apart by some of us, to the detriment of all of us. That’s what a parasite does in the host body — the host body keeps it relatively safe, fed, warm — all the while, the parasite eats away at the host, until the host sickens and dies.
A parasite is a lie. A lie told over and over until no one can remember the truth. A parasite is an idea that presents well, but bears toxic gifts. Here’s an example. The poor should be supported by the rich, after all the logic goes, they would not be rich if it were not for us poor. Taxes increase but so do the poor. Taxes increase again but so do the numbers of poor. The cycle repeats over and over. Until finally, the taxes are so high that there are no more rich to tax — then the poor die first, followed by the previous rich. Is that not a similar life cycle of a deadly parasite living in the host?
I passed a car on I-24, just outside of Nashville. It was Nissan Altima — it had a bumper sticker that read, “Eat the Rich”. A parasitic idea being messaged by someone that doesn’t want to continue the agreements that forged our nation? Do they not want to keep the agreements that have been passed on from one generation to the next? Has the driver forgotten, that it was these agreements that made it better to live together as a nation, then to go it alone?
To be sure, I don’t think the driver of that Altima would agree with my assessment. Maybe the car’s owner was only thinking of the song by Aerosmith — a song written by an ultra-wealthy rock band that depicts the ugliness of pride that some rich (and poor people I might add) have and suggest that we eat them. Pot calling the Kettle black? I think it more likely that the driver would just say that they want to do their part to correct a social injustice.
What injustice? Here’s another parasitic idea — the rich did not earn their wealth justly. There must always be an injustice that explains it and never a JUST explanation. Like, they worked hard and sacrificed, or they created something that was so great that people lined up to pay for it, or they studied hard and acquired information that others benefit from, or they invested in companies that had great products making life better, or they lived a disciplined life, stayed away from drugs and debt, and slowly grew wealthy into their old age. There are so many just reasons why someone could be rich. At least as many as there are unjust — but that won’t fit on a bumper sticker, or a tweet.
Some species of parasites are so clever, they excrete chemicals into your bloodstream so that you feel no pain — while being eaten alive. Our economy is imploding — did you get your $1400 check? Law and order appear relative. Our politicians seem incompetent at best, and mostly moronic. For nearly a year now we have worn masks to “flatten the curve.” Big Tech keeps our words in check and Big Pharma keeps us comfortably numb. Big. Bigger. The Biggest Federal Government in the history of our nation keeps us safe. Rationality is giving way to irrationality and, as it slips and subsides, so does our reasons to live together. Goodbye America — I think I can do better on my own.
