The Political Cycle

Many paths may lay before you, but really there is only one. So let me tell you a story. Imagine a little boy is born and begins growing up on a farm in rural America. The winters get cold, food is sometimes scarce and water often has to be brought from a well about half a mile from the house. It's a plainly humble life. Over some years until his adolescence he grows and matures steadily in his little town, going to school and learning, but not questioning much of his own life or those around him. He learns to enjoy the simplicity in his home and his family-life even if it is hard-trying sometimes, but his family all seem ok with it, so he's happy as well. He enjoys this style of life. He feels as though there is always some solace in being outdoors, feeling the world, and working with his own two hands. He's close to full acceptance of this life. However, things start to change when he gets a laptop under his tree for Christmas one year. It's like alien technology to him, it breathes a new life into his world, and opens it up to mass exploration. He's completely fascinated with it and it immediately becomes one of his favorite pastimes, not necessarily replacing his love for the outdoors but simply opening him up to new and different possibilities. He soon realizes he's getting better and better with technology; he's got a natural curiosity for it and he grows to be much more skilled with it than many of the other kids in his class. More and more, he starts to see his own life’s potential and eventually starts thinking differently about his small town. He thinks his life might always be spent hanging out in dusty old taverns, working a menial job, living a slow life with slow people. Before, he couldn't always see past the limits of his own town, and the traditional and archaic life that most of these people, to him, mindlessly inhabit. He begins to desire getting out, seeing the world, making a life for himself somewhere else; as he sees others on the internet do. He self-determines his own life from here on out. He will get out, lead another life somewhere else, and get away from these lowly and unambitious people. He gets into college for computer science and gets a well paying job right after college. He works for many years, upgrading jobs and salaries throughout this time, until he gets his tenured job working with software at a big tech company. It pays well. He see's the politics of the democrats, the left, and "hand-outs" gain traction and prominence in the political realm. A presidential election is upcoming. "These people are weak," he thinks, as he casts his vote for the republican nominee. "Why am I expected to pay for these people's struggles? I struggled, now look at me."

This man soon gets married and has a son. The son grows up in a suburban middle-class area, with good schools, diverse and educated people, and an overall sense of peace and comfort. His house has heating, running water, and a large backyard where his father can work with his hands and be outside, though the son prefers video-games. The son never has to worry about money or food or staying warm during cold winters. He's content, happy, and hidden from worry. His parents make sure he's educated and knowledgeable as he goes through early school and adolescence. The son does what he can to make his parents happy, and coasts through his early education, doing as well as he can muster out of his inner shell of peace and comfort. Soon, the son starts to realize that others don't always seem as content with life as he often is. He sees that some of his friends don't like to play video-games as much he does and that they like being outside of their house a lot more than he would think usual. His friends seem to vary between going on a lot of vacations and not going on many at all. And some always seemed a little meaner and uptight than others. He sees all of this and wonders why this is. As he gets older, he takes up an interest in discovering the cause of this mysterious asymmetry in people. He begins searching for answers. Soon, he realizes that money certainly has a part to play, but still if you looked closer it always seemed to muddy and remain inconsistent. Some people still acted different, regardless of how much money they had or how big their house was. He still finds no clear answers. He studies philosophy, politics, history and other social subjects to try to dig up some truth to these questions he has. He finds nothing still. He goes to college and finally meets some strangers and is able to talk to new people from different places. He soon realizes the answers he was looking for were clear. He learns that people's stories that they told him often fit certain patterns, like that more strong-willed-types usually came from less-money or had people in their life that grew up with less money, pushing them to work-hard so that they too can be important in life, and on the other hand, that the laid-back types often came from lives of comfort and had parents that wanted to make sure they were care-free and happy above anything else. The son thinks this through as he goes and continues on through his life. Years later, the son goes to vote in a Presidential election. As he's casting his vote for the democratic nominee he thinks, "People can be so strong. Why would anybody deny them the happiness they deserve?"

The overall moral of the story is that, while the father and the son arrived at two distinctly different places in terms of their ideology, neither of these stories contain anymore lapse in reasoning than the other and neither carried anymore weight or merit than the other either. They both follow a linear path of human nature and both were wholly focused on the improvement of their own circumstances. The only caveat was their own life-experiences. We should always attempt to not only understand our peers, but to come to an understanding with them instead of the judgment that forces us keeps our stories internal. If we can do this then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to find some answers for all of us.