Hopping to Survive

Grasshoppers are able to survive with two tricks:  eat green and hop if something big moves.

Many examples of beings with only one or two survival tricks abound in nature. It is a very efficient use of limited brain power.

Humans often emulate this:  the street fighter with one or two well practiced moves, the salesman with one workable strategy,  the author with one story arc, or even the surgeon with one well worn procedure.

In the area of political debates, one of the most interesting simple strategies was employed by Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter.

Carter had an engineer’s mastery of policy details which Reagan could not match.  Reagan’s strategy was to counter Carter’s detailed description of a policy with, “there you go again”.

This--doubtless well rehearsed--ploy allowed Reagan to denigrate the whole philosophy of knowing things without having to know something himself.  The implication was that Carter was too smart to be president--too enmeshed in details to see the big picture.

Progressives love details and are always in search of the next new idea.   Sometimes the ideas are great, sometimes not.  There is always a new one in the hopper.

 Conservatives prefer the one well-practiced solution (“lower taxes”, “less government”. good old fashioned anything).

I think it is a true generalization that conservatives are more interested in survival and progressives more interested in happiness.