The Mysterious Others

I thought we had discussed this before, but maybe not. It is natural for people to divide themselves into two groups, "us" and "them". In many primitive tribal cultures, the name that the tribe calls themselves literally translates into English as "The Real People", or simply "The People". Neighboring tribes are given name like "The Mountain People", or "The Valley People". The people who live in the mountains don't call themselves "The Mountain People", that's what the Valley People call them and, similarly, the Valley People are only called that by the Mountain People. Our own local Indians call themselves "Anishinabe", The Real People. In some older texts, they are frequently referred to as "Algonquians", which is what the Iroquois called them. I don't know what it means, but it's probably not complimentary because the Iroquois were historical enemies of the Anishinabe.

When we were growing up, our tribe was "The Kids", but the Others refused to call us that, insisting that kids were baby goats, and we were human children. We learned early on that the Others, although they were our overlords, did not always have our best interests at heart. The Others were, of course, the adults and, when we became adult ourselves, we refused to be assimilated into their tribe. They probably didn't want us anyway or they would have made some effort to recruit us while there was still time. Regardless of that, it became more difficult to distinguish between us and them as time went by. The die was cast, however, and we spent the rest of our lives wondering where the Others might be hiding, laying in wait to pounce on us when we least expected it. Who knows, they might even be walking among us in disguise as we speak!

In my case, it was a little different. I didn't have a problem with all authority figures, just the bad ones, so it was a good guy-bad guy thing. I always considered myself to be one of the good guys. There might have been a genetic component to it, but I think my early conditioning also had a lot to do with it. As far back as I can remember, people were always telling me what a good boy I was. I just took it for granted at the time, but it must have seeped into my subconscious and affected my self image. I have met people who bragged about being bad, as if it was something to be proud of. When I got to know these guys, most of them turned out to be not so bad after all. I'm not sure why they felt compelled to project this bad image, but I suspect it was some kind of social thing. I don't know if the real bad guys consider themselves to be bad, or if they consider themselves to be good and the rest of us to be bad. Somebody should do a study on that.

Later in life I came to the conclusion that it wasn't just the bad guys who were against me, it was everybody. Wait, that didn't come out right! It's not that everybody's against me, it's just that they are not particularly for me. They have their own agendas as I have mine, and every minute I spend helping them with their agendas is a minute that I don't have to work on my own agenda and, at my age, I don't have that many minutes left. Anyway, when I say "they" nowadays, it usually just means "other people".

Part of the Michigan vote for Wallace in '72 was undoubtedly attributed to White backlash. I don't think bussing was a big issue around here, it was the riots. Then there were those who never did like colored people in the first place, and this was the first time a candidate who openly agreed with them had been on the Michigan ballot. There was another group, however, that were called "crossovers". These were people who usually voted Republican, but saw this as an opportunity to sabotage the Democratic chances in the main election. I don't know what percentage they were of the total, but the real Democrats took them seriously enough that they stopped having open presidential primaries for a long time. Instead they went to a caucus system, where you had to be a card carrying party member to vote. Some states still have that but, last I heard, Michigan was back to the old system.

Immigration laws in this country have been changed several times. At one point they excluded Chinese immigrants entirely, but it was too late as they were already here. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the quotas were generally favorable to Europeans, but they were changed in the 1960s and made more favorable to Asians and Hispanics. I suppose it was part of that affirmative action thing, but it seems that the action has been adequately affirmed by now, and we might consider bringing in some White folks before we become a minority in our own country. They are having the same problem in Europe and Canada, so we all might want to consider seeking refuge in someplace like Greenland. I understand that, with global warming, that might become prime real estate in a few years.