It seems whenever you have two opposing sides that are philosophically different, and I’m talking primordially different in a way where simple issues cannot be discussed in a polite and civilized way, the differences between the two can be broken down into what I would call the Babylon Syndrome. Based off the Shadows and Vorlons from Babylon 5 the two ancient races toyed with the lesser races just to try and prove which method was correct. The Shadows believed, for lack of a better word, in chaos. In a description in the show, they would come and shake up the ant hill, just to see who would survive. To them conflict was the way to settle disputes.

The Vorlons, as described in the show, were like parents. They wanted to protect the lesser races and while nurturing they were also restrictive. Everyone had to move at the same pace, even if some races were more advanced than others. All races were equal in their eyes and all had to help one another succeed.

I just heard a radio show, a progressive one, where a caller called in and the host just wouldn’t let up on how wrong the caller was. The ironic thing was the caller agreed with the view of the host and was trying to explain to the host the reason conservatives had a better time relating to the masses was because they kept things simple. It was the old Bushism that in politics you had to repeat the same thing over and over again until people understood. The host, when he thought the caller was a conservative plant, was so bent on showing how intellectually superior he was he never listened to what the caller said or the help he was trying to offer. It was as if the host was saying to the caller if the public can’t listen or understand my obvious intellect the public isn’t worthy of my advice.

Just as a side note; my old film production boss had the same attitude, but with a conservative bent. I remember when my attitude changed about him when I was in a meeting for the first time with the partners we had in Arizona. The group was fairly prepared, since they had researched trends on the internet and realized the best way for our project to work was to have our shows broken down into 10 minute segments or less. They looked at the YouTube model and saw that was the attention span we were dealing with. My boss, who acted older than his years, basically did a symbolic patting of the heads of these folks and told them how he wanted it done and it would be done his way. He didn’t care about the research because he KNEW what was right. He, of course, was wrong.

So why bring this up? To be honest I was close to letting America fall and become the shell of its former self. I was willing, actually looking forward to having the Republicans take over everything and let them mess things up so much that when the cycle changed Americans would get smart and make the right choice. Last night, before I heard the radio host, I began to doubt that strategy. I looked at how Americans had suffered for years under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. That is a solid thirty year dismantling of a system that was set up to allow all boats to rise with the tide, where if you were rich paying 50% in taxes wasn’t a bad thing, where wages rose with inflation.

I realized I haven’t had a raise since 1980. In fact, I haven’t had a wage increase since 1980. There were times when I would get a cost of living increase, or so it was called, but all that had to happen was for a job to change ownership and there was a wage freeze or a reassessment done by accounting. If I lost a job, the new job would be less than the old job and I would have to work my way back to the old wage, which was impossible if the cost of living ‘raise’ you got every year amounted to about $10 extra dollars after taxes but gas was costing an extra $15 a paycheck. I know I harp on this a lot but reading stories about how the middle class is hurting doesn’t make me cry because, as a recent article pointed out, this one man in his 50s was upset because when his daughter got her driver’s license he couldn’t buy her a new car. She had a horse from a few years ago. I don’t have a car and I’m looking to get a cat or dog from the pound, if I can afford it, yet this guy wants me to feel sorry for him because he has a horse and his daughter, shake the rafters, and might have to get a job to afford a used car.

Stories like that want to make me give up on people but I can’t do it. I have to hold out hope we will get our heads out of the sand and make the choice that was made on Babylon 5. When the younger races realized how the Vorlons and Shadows were treating them, they rejected both ideologies opting for free will. Right now we are so locked into the philosophy of the two parties, as petty as wanting to prove the other side wrong we are unwilling to face facts that both sides don’t have all the answers. We may have to borrow from one side or even reject some fundamental pillar we hold dear so we do the right thing. I still want to believe we can achieve that, but only time will tell.