Pater et Filius

Who is “the other”, though, for the man? Who are the herpeta? It always goes back to this. The first necessity in making a comparison is having articles, objects, to compare. Before there is an out-group there must be an in-group and if there must be an in-group, there must be a name for it, for things without names cannot exist. In order to safely guide his family through the tempest of time, this problem must be solved, this question must be answered – who is his group? Regardless of what once was and of what might be again, he’s part of no extant tribe in the true sense of the word – he’s found no one who shares his views, goals, lineage, and beliefs. There is nothing in the yuppie society he’s lumped with that he finds redeeming. Where these people experience giddiness he feels contempt, what they consider valuable he finds pedestrian, and what to them is meaningless he knows to be of great worth. This is not the silly contrariness so beloved of self-professed iconoclasts, safely ensconced in hipster enclaves from Williamsburg to Wicker Park to Silver Lake. It is simply the healthy reaction to a sickly culture and a corrupt breed. Therefore it’s clear, and has been for some time, that along with those babbling, varied inhabitants at the bottom of the hill, all the neighbors atop the hill who look and speak like he does are also included in the out-group. The bitter truth that follows is that, if his family wants to ultimately thrive like others, they must realize that not only are they, alone, the in-group, but that the world itself stands against them.