Remember the children’s story about the Country Mouse and the City Mouse? I think today’s politics more accurately reflects this story than all the ideological rhetoric one hears. In the old story, the country mouse invites the city mouse to have dinner, but the city mouse is dissatisfied by the meager dish and boring – yet peaceful -- surroundings. The country mouse then visits the city mouse for dinner, and finds wondrous foods, but is attacked at every corner by dangers never seen in the country. The country mouse concludes that it would rather have simple fare, living in safety, than grand fare, living in fear.
Modern day conservatives are “country mice;” they tend to see themselves as pioneers in the wilderness. Being alone, they mostly value neighbors and old-fashioned, reliable family traditions. They would prefer to do things on their own, through their own labor and wits. The biggest obstacles are nature and the oppressive governmental overlords who want to overtax them and take away their freedoms. Local governments tend to be corrupt and vote to allow rich barons to raze the forests to create unwanted urban areas (rich barons who leave them alone are praised because country mice only want to be left alone).
Because they are on their own, country-dwellers need their guns for protection against invaders, passionately believe in the Bill of Rights for protection from the government, and realize that they are tiny, inconsequential fleas when it comes to the Big Bad World, so rely on the Biggest of Protectors, their God. Governmental help is desired only during the most disastrous of times, such as war or famine.
Modern day liberals tend to see the world as does the “town mouse;” they tend to see themselves as living the high life in a diverse yet dangerous and risky world. Being in a place crowded by strangers, they tend to distrust everyone since everyone is potentially trying to get their share of the goodies. They see a world of plenty all around and just want to get their fair share of it, by hook or by crook, and do their best to keep others from getting more than their fair share, since they know that they are in constant competition with their neighbors. The biggest obstacles to the city-dweller are rogue gangs, who threaten their lives, and bigwigs, who come to raze their neighborhoods to the ground to make some new building and eliminate the nooks and crannies where goodies are found. “Freedom” means chaos to the townie. The world has something for everyone and could never in a million years go bare; there are always goodies to acquire as long as the government restricts the bad guys from taking it all.
Because they live in a very dangerous place, city-dwellers need protections most of all. They believe in more-restrictive laws, stronger governments, and the freedom to be dependent because being self-reliant in the city will only get you dead from starvation or dead from the local hoodlums. City-dwellers need 100 times more support from the government to survive peacefully and happily...strike that; make that “to survive happily with great stimulations,” since most city-dwellers have very little peace and learn to love the constant “excitement.”
Aesop’s Fables noted this difference 2500 years ago and it still seems to drive society and politics today. I confess, I am a country mouse at heart, although I very much enjoyed my exciting time in the city during my young adulthood.
