Speaking of cheating on the blog instead of coming up with something original, I was also considering the notion of instinct and its current popularity in our country. The entire concept owes its value to nature and, in some respects, is an absolutely admirable trait. When a mother protects her young, when people strive to improve their lot in life, when people respond viscerally to an injustice, when heroes disregard their own welfare to save others- these are all wonderful examples of instinct bearing out its value in a socially important manner.

 But there is another side to instinct that is as ugly as ugly can get. When people automatically blame others for their own problems, when people denigrate others because of their differences, when people take advantage of others' weaknesses because it creates an advantage for themselves, when people cheat because they can get away with it- these are examples of our instincts' serving against our best interests. 

 Everyone is familiar with sports teams whose talent is not as great as their opponents, but whose teamwork enables them to defeat another team with greater talent. It is always thus- people working together will defeat those who glorify individual achievements over teamwork. I write this as a notice to those who think America can get away with isolating itself away from a global economy. We need our trading partners as much as they need us. It is in our best interests to help bring their quality of life up to our level instead of trying to treat them as inferiors. Otherwise, they will team up on us and we will lose. 

 Robert Frost speaks directly to the issue of instinct in his classic poem "The White-Tailed Hornet". He expresses wondrous admiration of the insect's innate ability to fly out of its burrow like a bullet "And stab me in the sneeze-nerve of a nostril". It's pretty generous of Mr. Frost to admire an animal after such an attack, but then he gathers some second thoughts about the event. Here is the final stanza of Robert Frost's

 "The White Tailed Hornet"

Won't this whole instinct matter bear revision?

Won't almost any theory bear revision?

To err is human, not to, animal.

Or so we pay the compliment to instinct,

Only too liberal of our compliment

That really takes away instead of gives.

Our worship, humor, conscientiousness

Went long since to the dogs under the table.

And served us right for having instituted

Downward comparisons. As long on earth

As our comparisons were stoutly upward

With gods and angels, we were men at least,

But little lower than the gods and angels.

But once comparisons were yielded downward,

Once we began to see our images

Reflected in the mud and even dust,

'Twas disillusion upon disillusion.

We were lost piecemeal to the animals,

Like people thrown out to delay the wolves.

Nothing but fallibility was left us,

And this day's work made even that seem doubtful.

The key idea is that projecting negative images of other people actually projects reflections of ourselves.