The Unicorn Problem

[*This blog was inspired by a post on another website, which I freely acknowledge. Unfortunately, the user who posted the original article has since abandoned their account, and I could not contact her to obtain her permission. Accordingly, this post is subject to... Well, if she ever writes me a rude letter demanding I remove it, I will. Just to let you know.*]

There are a lot of people in this country. Some of them call themselves by one label or another, and some just call themselves "Independent."

But an awful lot of them suffer from the unicorn problem.

I will explain; it's pretty simple.

Some people believe that they are unicorns. Not that they feel like unicorns, or look like them, but that they, themselves, are in fact unicorns. The embodiment of, the spirit of, physically transformed into, whatever.

Which is fine; you have an absolute right to believe anything you want, and if you want to believe you are a unicorn, more power to you. The problem is that most people who believe themselves to be unicorns aren't satisfied merely to BE unicorns. They do their best to correct everyone on proper unicorn behavior, proper unicorn etiquette, proper unicorn activities; and they demand that everyone else agree with their belief that they are unicorns.

They are crazy.

If you deny their unicorn-ness, they become angry, despondent, even violent.

There are unicorns who insist they possess some economic expertise not imparted by schooling or common sense, but instead by reading newspapers. There are unicorns who insist that they are the "right people" who should be in charge. There are unicorns who know better than you.

And some of them are very dangerous.

A goodly number of our Congresscritters believe themselves to be unicorns. They know better than you; they are the right ones to be in charge; they can make their ideology work, despite the fact that it's never worked anywhere; they insist that despite their constituents' complaints and huge demonstrations, they are doing "the right thing" for all of us.

They are crazy.

There's nothing wrong with being a unicorn. This is something people don't seem to get; you have an absolute right to be a unicorn if you want to; you just don't have the right to demand other people play along under the same rules.

See, the trouble is that these people want to force their rules on everyone else, and that's wrong.

I don't disbelieve in the existence of unicorns; if you say you want to be someone who knows more than I, can magically make bad ideas good, and know what's right for me even if I object, that's fine. But you don't get to demand that I agree with you on any of that.

In the past, there have been people who come to my page, expecting or demanding that I acknowledge their unicorn-ness.

I feel for those people; it must hurt to have such a treasured delusion treated with the contempt I tend to direct their way.

I don't believe your ideology, I don't believe in your imaginary expertise, I don't believe ANYONE is "the right people" to make communism work. You have a right to believe it if you want, but you can't force me to.

Sadly, an awful lot of the people on both sides of the aisle in American politics are sufferers of the unicorn problem.

They want their beliefs to be true so powerfully, so passionately, that they are willing to destroy our society to make it so.

They are dangerous. And at our next election, we should get rid of as many of them as we possibly can.

There is nothing wrong with being a unicorn.

But I don't want them forming the base of our government.