Rush - The Trees, from Gordon Haave

September 15, 2009 |

What is the theme of The Trees by Rush, is it Americans (oaks) vs Canadians (maples) or is it about inequality in general ? — a Reader

It is an attack on those obsessed with equality, pointing out that you can make people equal only by chopping down those who are above others.

Vincent Andres adds:

I first read that song/poem on Sardanapale, a very interesting French/English language outside-the-box thinking site.

Nick White warns:

But how do you define being "above" or — to strip away the euphemism — "better than" others? Are there not also plentiful examples whereby those whom one might consider "inferior" in one domain eventuate themselves to be superior to the original observer in another?

Such talk is dangerous. Libertarian values can all too easily be conflated with thinly-veiled elitism. Not that I am suggesting that of anyone here – just an observation from the tone of the piece.

Gordon Haave replies:

That's the point. You can't. So you chop everyone down to zero because it is the only way to make everyone equal.

J. T. Holley jokes:

Not to zero, only up to the point where all the Oaks uproot themselves and leave the Maples in their own forest and move to Colorado.

Chris Tucker concludes:

Is it not fair to say that some are better than others in a particular field of endeavor? Some are better tennis players, some are better traders, some are better friends, some have better (more) integrity, some are better at cheating. Some are definitely members of certain elites — GM Davies is an elite chessplayer, for example. The elitism that Nick refers to arises from a more broad or general sense of superiority in many ways or every way. That is the dangerous kind that leads to exclusionary thinking. The point of Neil Peart's lyrics is that we are not all equal at everything, but governments would treat us as such in order to make legislation play to the lowest common denominator, in much the same way as a teacher must teach to the slowest student in the class or the team is hamstrung by the slowest member. It is simply the distillation of one important idea, that equality can be brought about by trying to force everyone to be the same and since you definitely cannot make everyone faster or smarter or nicer or more sensible, you just might be able to make the fast ones slower, the smart ones dumber and the sensible ones senseless.

Comments

1 Comment so far

reid on September 15, 2009 12:46 pm
Elitism is just like a monopoly — neither can exist for long nor cause harm without sponsorship by the state. In a meritocracy Victor's rules for long term success will prevail.

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