The only real difference between the far right and the far left is loyalty. Both view life as a zero sum game in which the most meaningful divisions are oppressor and oppressed, or more accurately predator and victim. They only differ on who they believe you should back.
If you can win, you should, you deserve to, is the argument of the far right. If you can win, you should deliberately give some to those who can’t, is the argument of the far left. Their ideologies are the same, they simply identify with different parties and use different strategies. The left relies on the odd strategy of needing to convince the predators that it’s bad to be predators and they should voluntarily lose or give up some of their winnings to support those who can’t. If they truly are predators though, oppressors by nature, why should they do this?
The tactics used by the left involve guilt and social pressure and lots of communication and exhange. They also have their own captive predators, good doggies who will do what they’re asked to make things safe for the helpless perpetual victims, perpetual because they never truly disappear as a class, the left always finds them, or even makes them. They need them to be so they can be who they are.
There is a primordial element to all these dynamics, all these arguments, all these tactics, all these identities. They hold power because there is something deep within us that responds to them. We are prey, and have the instincts of a prey animal, the herd defenses. But we’re also predators, and we have the instincts of a hunter, the cunning and determination of the pack. Moreover, we’ve figured out how to use the opposing instincts for their opposite purposes. We know how to use our predatory nature to protect others, and our prey nature to attack as a group.
You can’t really resolve the argument between the two because we aren’t only prey, not only herd animals. And we aren’t only solitary predators. Our success lies in a blending of the two and being able to adapt to any niche. We are superadaptive because we aren’t just a species, we’re an ecosystem unto ourselves. We can simulate the whole in one. That is why the arguments from both sides often seems so silly, and so similar. We are each very accurately accusing one another of being exactly what we are and of possessing the strengths and vulnerabilities and powers and dangers that we do, in fact, possess. That’s not an abberation, that’s the human race.
Making Nobody Happy 