Those Who Lurk

There are always people lurking.  “Who are these people?”  You might ask.  They are concerned citizens.  They care.  They want to make the world better.  All of which is noble.  Now, look at their lives.  Are their lives better?  Better than what?  Better how?  Lots of these people are barely functioning misfits.  Not all of them, mind you, but it will be true for enough them. Yes, they know about pain and suffering.  And, as such, they empathize with others who suffer and they seek to alleviate their pain.  What is the cause of their pain?  You are.  Society is.  So, society must be remade to accommodate their pain—and they must pay, in cold, hard cash. 

​Yes, cash levels the playing field.  Without cash, you’re pretty well screwed.

Now, it may be that these people who lurk, are suffering from a slight biological malfunction that compels them to see the world through morose colored glasses. If they got some vitamin B, maybe they’d be better?   Maybe not.  Maybe they need a shot of lithium, or a mild dose of Wellbutrin?  Maybe that would shut them up.  But, they view the world through a Freudian lens, wearing their morose colored glasses—and this shapes the way in which they see the world.

In the not-to-distant future, a tweak of a gene or two may do the trick.  Then, maybe, they’ll get about living their lives, instead of ours. Until then, they will work feverishly to level the playing field, hands out, palms up, waiting for the cash, egging on legislators to change the world and remake it in their image.   

Of course, even then, they won’t be satisfied.  There is no satisfaction for those who lurk, wearing morose colored glasses.  Cold, hard, cash cannot compensate for the trick that their biology is playing on them. But they don’t know that. Their internal drive is simply too strong.

​Barack Obama is one such person.  As was his mother, and the grandparents that raised him.  They probably were, as well.  That’s why he relates to the outsider, the idiot, and the drug dealer.  When Barack looks at some whacked-out, murdering Islamist, what he sees is the downtrodden.  Their bombs are merely an extension of their pain, and his. This like-mindedness, is the glue that binds them together. 

In that sense, Barack is different from most of his political brethren, who are really just opportunists, not unlike the alligator lurking at the water’s edge.  It is the wedding of these things, the lurking predator, acting out it's biological mandate and, the thieving wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing that makes them a deadly pair.  Because the blood flows the same, either way.

Mark Magula