Blame the Dog

Out of idle curiosity, which is clearly one of my besetting sins, I tracked back a poster on a blog I was reading to find out who they were, when they were at home.

The answer saddened me. I was reading yet another blog of an educated political liberal who can’t make a significant human connection to anyone closer in species to themselves than a dog.

So, folks, what’s up with that?

I’m having trouble mustering up much sympathy for people who want to determine public policy under these circumstances, and that’s the truth. And, before I’m inundated in hate-mail from dog bloggers, let me be clear that I am not against dogs, or animals, or people who love and care about animals, or animals who love and care about people. I’m just discouraged by what looks like a growing subset of people who are afraid to get a marker in the game, and justify it as a “political” POV.

Sadly, many of these people are “breeders”. Everyone knows (and many of us have experienced) people who don’t make significant human connections but still bring a troop of children into the world, or waste the time of others in the dating (and sometimes marrying) process. They have a kind of biological momentum to account for that, though. What is it with people who seem to be creating a self-righteous rationale that they cannot risk their ‘independence' by connecting with anyone in an emotional way, despite their belief that emotional connections (as long as shared with a budgerigar, or a basset hound, or a rescued cat) are valuable?

This deep speciesism is not cutting any ice with me. And the spin you place on it, muttering about war, and carbon footprints, and heterosexism, and any other buzzwords you think might suffice to shut me down isn’t working, either. Because the fact is, committing to a relationship with someone (or several someones, as happens in families) is simultaneously the most and least selfish thing you can engage in. It just plain has more range than the alternative.

“A man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

I’m in favor of “Relationship” because it is a creative process. Like any creative process, it’s essentially risky, and messy, and has no promise of successful outcome. It requires you to be emotionally present, it exists in the real world, and it has repercussions.

These things are not true of your love affair with your ferret. It’s true that you can invest your ‘life with ferret' with consideration or neglect, with play, with shared activities, with those little moments where you and the ferret experience perfect harmony and understanding… (Go ahead and reread this paragraph, if you need to.)

It may in fact be true that a corgi is your ‘soul mate.’ I think better of corgis, however. Corgis who get the opportunity to sleep in a real bed, mark territory, and create little corgis almost always take enthusiastic advantage of such opportunities. Trust me; you’re making no sense to him, either.

The thing people like about animals is, they’re subject. If your dog runs ahead on a walk you think he’s active and fun. If your boyfriend runs ahead on a walk you think he’s ignoring you and criticizing your fitness level. If your cat neglects your friends you think he’s exclusive in his tastes. If your girlfriend neglects your friends you think she’s anti-social. You can create the reality of your pet’s reactions to suit yourself, but another person’s reactions are intrusively out of your control. Maybe Fido hates your knock-knock jokes and your chicken paprikash recipe, too. How convenient not to ask.

So. “How does this relate to political blogging”, you may wonder.

Here’s the thing. Everyone (by now) has noticed that the American Left has discovered the blogosphere as yet another way to implode when success seemed possible, if not inevitable. I suggest that that’s partly because too many people are investing their compassion in imaginary ‘relationships’ that are completely devoid of effective criticism. That leaves us cranky, critical, and thin-skinned when it comes to each other, free to hunt violations of political correctness and small errors of judgment without the kind of forgiveness, or even strategic thinking, that is essential to the most basic of human relationships.

It also gives us time on the computer that could better be spent in making love. Sad misuse of priorities, guys.




For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke