Smoky The Barely Tolerant
The smoke of ignorance of bilateral symmetry
Some folks have a sacramental world view
Which is to say, an accurate and deeper world view. One definition of sacrament is a visible sign that points to an invisible truth; something in the natural world that reveals or participates in a deeper spiritual or metaphysical reality.
One such sign is the bilateral symmetry we find in most complex organisms. Simplest examples, left and right arms, left and right legs, left and right wings, left and right eyes and ears.
Frater Bovious was once asked by his young daughter, why do we have two ears? He thought for a moment and realized, as close together as they are, sound nevertheless arrives to each ear at different times. This allows us to know from which direction the sound came.
And most of us know about the advantage of stereoscopic vision. Predators have two eyes facing forward with overlapping fields of view. This permits us to judge depth accurately, allows better hand-eye coordination, improved motion tracking, and enhances focus, allowing us to concentrate on one object while ignoring background.
Bilateral symmetry. It matters.
A one winged bird cannot fly. A horse with two left legs cannot run. We need left and right. Bilateral symmetry is not left vs right. Rather, its effectiveness is found in its complementarity. It allows action and integration.
What is the invisible Political truth I want to evoke by this discussion?
The framers of the Constitution built bilateral symmetry into our government. Even within the three branches of government we see this complementarity, the way forward with action and integration.
House and Senate
The House is closer to the people, short election cycles, more responsive. The Senate, especially as originally configured, is more deliberative, insulated from mob rule. The symmetry: passion and prudence, motion and restraint.
Executive and Legislature
President provides unitary action, speed, decisions. Meanwhile the structure of the Legislature creates debate, consideration of multiple interests, fosters compromise, even delay. The symmetry: deliberation by many is safer than impulse by one. Unless immediate action must be taken. Then you need a single will.
There are many more such symmetries that you can tease out for yourself. Federal and State. Judiciary and Legislative. You can see the complementarity, the balance, if you will look.
Three Smoke Signs
Liberal ≠ Progressive (Smoke of Semantic Collapse)
Liberal (original sense):
Values individual freedom under law, grounded in reason, natural rights, and ordered liberty. Seeks to protect persons from excessive power.Progressive (modern sense):
Seeks social transformation through state action, aiming for equality of outcome1 and structural change. Uses power to reshape persons and society.Core difference:
Liberals protect liberty; progressives pursue justice through change—even at liberty’s expense.
Fire risk:
By focusing on progressive values, which are ungrounded, we lose prudence, caution, the Burkean2 brake pedal.Conservative ≠ Reactionary (Smoke of Tribal Branding)
Conservative (Original sense):
One who seeks to preserve the good, the true, and the time-tested.
Not opposed to change, but insists that change be measured, rooted in tradition, and oriented toward the common good.Smoke:
Equating conservatism with just saying “no” to everything. True conservatism conserves—but it also cultivates.Fire risk:
Without the liberal impulse to reform, conservatism calcifies. Without conservatism, liberalism derails.Right vs. Left ≠ Good vs. Evil - or Evil vs. Good (Smoke of Moral Absolutism)
Location:
Everywhere. Right and Left stand in for a vast cache of opinions and value judgments that frankly simply don’t apply to any one individual. We are not two-dimensional and we are not that tiny. And they should not ever be in a zero sum game of opposition.Smoke:
The idea that your side is the angel and the other is Moloch’s intern.Fire risk:
A civilization that forgets political symmetry breeds monsters on both sides of the aisle. Remember: the heart’s got two atria (left and right) and two ventricles (left and right). Taken together, the right side takes in oxygen depleted blood and then sends it to the lungs to become oxygenated. The left side takes in the oxygenated blood and then sends it to the body. The left and right, upper and lower chambers coordinate and cooperate or the body dies.
Smoke to watch for
The idea that centrism is cowardice. Every tightrope walker knows that balancing left and right is a demonstration of strength, not weakness.
Closing
We were made for balance. That’s not a metaphor. Bilateral symmetry isn’t just efficient; it’s revelatory. It tells us something true about how complex things stay alive.
Our political system was designed the same way: not as a tug-of-war, but as a tensioned net. When one side breaks or bloats or declares itself the whole, the organism will die. So, what do you and I do to keep this living breathing country alive?
We don’t confuse outrage with reason. We do remember the price of freedom is vigilance. Always scan the horizon for tell-tale wisps of smoke.
For More Smoky: Smoky
Fires should be controlled, and mastery of fire is foundational to civilization and is a skill that warrants development. Like when you light a fine cigar, which you can help me with by smashing that button. You can help buy me a cigar with a $5 donation. I will laud your largesse in a future article.
Equality of Outcome is a nonsense phrase. It treats outcomes as if they are the product of systems, like a widget off an assembly line. People aren’t widgets. Everyone can’t play basketball at the professional level. We are not all the same, we don’t all have the same skills and abilities. Hell, we don’t even have the same interests, likes, or dislikes. It is a nonsense ideal; it has no metaphysical reality if we recognize the unique reality of each human being.
Drawn from the political philosophy of Edmund Burke, the 18th-century British statesman often called the father of modern conservatism. It refers to the conservative function in society and government that resists rapid change and insists on respecting inherited traditions, institutions, and norms.