Another fuzzy lesson

Taught by puppies:

You can, as I have said, stuff two fat bones with cheese and put them down, each one in front of its puppy.  But only one will prove interesting; the puppies will agree to wrassle each other for it.  The other bone can languish on the rug, a foot away, totally forgotten in the heat of jealousy.  Their fighting is amazing—they have rules; they body-block.  They grab the bone out of each other’s mouths.

It’s all fun and games till somebody gets an eye put out.

But at some point, the dogs forget what they were fighting over; even the favored bone is forgotten—and at this point, the attacks become ad hominem.  They go for each other’s faces and necks, they pull out hair, they sink teeth into each other.  They are fierce.  So fierce, we have to wade in and remind them that they are brothers.

Just like people.

Fights escalate until the point is forgotten.  The debate turns personal.  The anger, the wit, the nastiness focus not on the issue, but on the person who is on the other side of it.  As though killing the messenger will change the message.

I become wrong, not because my reasoning is bad, or because my evidence is flimsy, but because I’m mean.  I’m a big jerk.  I just don’t listen.  I’m not educated enough.  I’m trailer trash.  I’m effete.  Maybe because I never returned your ladder.

Eventually, the pups will settle down, curl up and go to sleep, curled together in one safe, confident little mass of happy fur.  People have a harder time coming together.  Sometimes, they end up blowing up the planet.