David McElroy

I’m sitting in a restaurant listening to a financial genius explain how to fix the economy. There’s a guy near me who says the government simply has to give $1 million to everybody 55 or older — on the condition that the person buy a car and a house. Voila. Economy fixed.

Where do you start with people who know this little, but are certain they know everything — and who believe they’re qualified and morally justified in trying to force their insane ideas on other people?

I think about this question a lot whenever I start thinking of our majoritarian political system. When people say they believe so adamantly in democracy, what I think they’re really saying is that they believe they’re right — and that if people would simply listen to them, all problems would be solved. What’s more, I find that most people honestly believe that the majority really believe the same basic things they believe. I can’t figure out the cause of this delusioin.

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According to a first-time commenter on the site named Terry, I’m apparently part of the “main stream (CFR influenced) Liberal media.” Those who regularly read the site probably find that just as amusing as I do, but I’m not mentioning it just to entertain us all. I’m mentioning it because of the sad point that Terry illustrates.

It seems as though it’s human nature to see the world in terms of “us vs. them.” There are many different positions that we can take — on political issues and most other things — but most people narrow it down to “what I believe” vs. “what the wrong people believe.” It’s just that the ways in which they segment the world are radically different. So even though most people see the world as “us vs. them,” they define “us” and “them” in very different ways.

Terry’s comment about me is a perfect example. He’s a Ron Paul supporter, and he took exception to my comments last week that straw polls are meaningless. It apparently would make  his head explode to realize that there are more positions other than “Ron Paul is going to win and straw polls matter” vs. “the mainstream liberal media who are in lockstep with the Council on Foreign Relations.” It doesn’t seem to occur to the guy that someone could be in favor of liberty enough to reject the statist system he supports — and is actually much further away from the mainstream than he could dream of being.

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I’d never been around cats or dogs from the same litter over the long term, so I had no idea just how different they could be from one another, even though they shared the same genes and same environment. Watching Charlotte, Emily and Anne grow up for the past couple of years has been an education for me in just how different they can be. I guess it’s no surprise considering how different human brothers and sisters can be.

I’ve already written about Charlotte and Anne, so you can read about them and compare if you’d like, but the biggest difference is that Emily is the friendly one who wants attention and closeness. In fact, there’s pretty much no place she’ll sleep each night than right on top of me. (On the right you’ll see an example when I woke up to find her wedged between the pillow and my shoulder, but she’s generally right on my stomach, back or side, depending on how I’m sleeping.)

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