"Why There Are Liberals and Conservatives?"

THE PRIME PRINCIPLE OF HOMO SAPIENS INTELLECTII

SYNTHESIS: Fleas on a Dachshund

Imagine a long dachshund, with fleas -- hordes of fleas. Let us suppose that the pup has just been washed, shampooned, rubbed down, and blown dry.

The fleas are in a state of confusion -- jumping in all directions -- scattered at random over the well-washed dachshund.

Let's suppose a minor unreality. (To read truth one must sometimes lie to oneself.) These fleas are of a new breed: a mutation caused by Chernobyl or by a politician of your choice. Nature, left to itself, would never evolve such stupid fleas as these.

Our imagined fleas are flocking fleas -- flocking like the pigeons of Times Square or Lord Nelson's statue. Call them "syphon" fleas. They syphon off one another. These syphon fleas love traveling companions. Any flea that sees a nearby flea going the same direction joins with it. Together they can jump faster and farther, and with less danger from predators; especially the danger posed by fleas going in the opposite direction. We know this is true for the Encyclopedia Insecta tells us that flees are "siphonaptera" (translation: apt to syphon)

On a dachshund, as is well known, there are only two directions to go, toward the head or toward the tail. Now we have a vision. All Great Insights start with a vision.

We have fleas joining up in flocks to go tailward and flocks to go headward. Each flock persists towards its destination: to the far Tail or to the far Head. The belly in the Middle soon has no fleas. Now we know where the fleas are going but how does this knowledge apply to you and me?

ANALYSIS: Gray's Anatomy and The Information Revolution

One day a very intelligent flea, hopping Tailward with his flock, came upon a copy of Gray's Anatomy, Siphon Edition. Quickly scanning the Table of Contents, Sy, as his friends called him, saw that Part I gave the relative merits of Heads and Tails, thus:

Part I     Heads and Tails

A.     The Merits of Heads

B.     The Merits of Tails

Having some time on his hands before the next jump, without a moment's hesitation, Sy opened the book to Part I(B) to read the advantages of the Tail toward which he was hopping (quite by accident). The question of the relative merit of Heads and Tails had not previously arisen in his studies of the world.

In Part I(B) he learned of the wonders of Tails. When the bell rang for the next jump, without hesitation and with great certainty of decision, Sy took a great hop Tailward. He had the presence of mind to take with him the torn-out pages of Part I(B). He had no reason to bother with the remainder of the ponderous Gray's Anatomy. All he needed to know was the advantages of the Tail, for there was his destiny.

As fate would have it, a few jumps later Sy crashed into a Headward flea. Gathering their wits, sitting together after the crash, Sy and the Headward flea fell into conversation. But the Headward flea, although an attractive lady, began to extol the virtues of Heads.

Instantly -- without a moment's thought -- Sy leaped to his feet. Being a powerful intellect, the move carried him quite out of danger. Sy was a powerful jumper, especially when his pages of Gray's, describing the merits of his committment to the Tail was challenged.

RESOLUTION:

The Division of the World of Siphonaptera

The War of the Ages

There is neither time nor place here to tell the awful history of the War of Heads and Tails, nor is much known of this great tragedy. Historians agree that the Tail Fleas read only Part I(B) -- carried tailward by Sy the Great. The Head Fleas read only Part I(A) that Sy left to them, nor did they ever desire otherwise. It is the nature of fleas -- a fact confirmed by recent Siphonaptera research -- to read only what confirms their direction, accidental though it may have been in its beginning. The World became divided irretreviably and the War Without End was inevitable.