Does anybody else see the absurdity of this bizarre party thing? Left? Right? What does that mean? It's like the people in Gulliver's Travels, the ones perpetually at war with each other over which end is better to start eating a soft-boiled egg. Narrow or wide. Left or right. It makes no sense. Yet both wings carry on like they've got it all figured out. Signing petitions, going to rallies, ranting and raving, puffing out their chests and feeling oh-so-important, oh-so-sure they've got it boiled down to what's really important. The so-called right-wingers think embryos are sacred but teen-agers make good canon fodder and the so-called left-wingers are exactly the opposite: kill the embryos, but stop the war! They’re both completely ridiculous, of course, and more alike than different.The truth is, they’re mirror images of each other, each as mindless a pawn of corporate greed as the other. Their mutual hatred connects them as perfectly to each other as a perpetually spinning yin-yang symbol. Embryos and teen-agers are both sacred, and killing?…is killing. Yet they go forever in circles. What else can you do with only one wing, but flap about uselessly in a circle?
But this pointless bickering serves a useful function for the powers that be. It keeps everybody from noticing, or caring about what's actually going on. The absurdity of this two party system simply keeps the powers that be in power.
“Sure,” they say, smiling their Inquisitors smiles, “fight about this stuff. We don't care. And while you're doing that, we'll continue to make ourselves obscenely rich by sucking the life out of the planet. Good. Keep fighting amongst yourselves!”
It's like a shell game. We're killing ourselves and the rest of creation. But it doesn't matter. The infighting goes on. This is how we convince ourselves we've created something special. If we're fighting about it, it must be real, mustn't it? We must be free. So we fight. This perpetuates the illusion that our so-called democracy, is real...that it's something to believe in, be proud of, to kill and die for...that it's more important than anything. Even life. Our fragile egos depend on it. We need to believe we're part of something noble and great.
The powers that be continue on undisturbed while left and right snarl over the dried out old bones they get tossed. The extinctions go on and on. It's business as usual.
Anne has finished her first novel and is busy peddling it to agents and publishers. She can be found wandering the streets of Crestone, CO and hanging out in Internet cafes. Contact her at annepyterek@gmail.com
