If left to the listener to interpret parables may expose more complicated philosophical issues than the parable creator intended. In this case, questions arise as to how the exposed tree should respond to the new paradigm created by the caretakers’ death. Did the protected tree get its comeuppance? Is the exposed tree morally responsible for assuming the care of its helpless neighbor, even though the latter was complicit in creating its own helplessness by tolerating all the lavish care heaped upon it? Should the protected tree be despised for its haughtiness? Is the exposed tree heroic in its endurance? Perhaps another caretaker will just replace the deceased one and life will go on as before. Perhaps despite all its efforts to survive the exposed tree will be cut down so the greenhouse can be expanded to make way for more dependent trees to be loved. Maybe the land will be sold and both trees ground into sawdust to make way for another pizza parlor to feed the caretaker's kind. Is the loving caretaker immoral for neglecting and favoring one tree over another and ignoring the suffering beyond his greenhouse walls? Can the human need to nurture become irresponsible enabling, or even enslavement? When the exposed tree eventually dies naturally will it fall onto the greenhouse and smash it and its long-dead neighbor, thereby fulfilling some karmic imperative? And if so, will there be a reliable inspector around to conduct a proper inspection of the premises? When trees talk does it sound like a bark to us? Sometimes there are no simple answers to even a seemingly simple parable.
I prefer to examine the situation at a more macro level that encompasses fundamental human behavior patterns and their consequences. Human beings are complex creatures with a range of motivations and behavior beyond any other creature this planet has ever known. This variability has provided us a capacity to adapt to our environment and become successful in dominating virtually every geographical and climatological niche. Historically, when we functioned within the most simple social organizations –individual families and tribes –most people had to learn many functional skills to survive in a harsh world. Those individuals and cultures with high exploratory drives, perseverance and problem solving capabilities tended to survive their environments. As civilizations evolved divisions of labor multiplied and became complicated. Some levels were far removed from the realities of survival. This was usually the privileged classes connected with power, wealth and religious leadership. In early civilizations the privileged classes forced the working class to provide for them, and the effort of living was easy for the privileged compared with the providers.
The record of human existence demonstrates that civilizations inevitably collapse sooner or later. When they do, regardless of the cause, it is the providers –those with the practical skills, the problem solvers, the most adaptable ones – that tend to survive. But, adaptability derives from experience in dealing successfully with the realities of living. Of being challenged and tested by life, passing those tests and incorporating the lessons learned into future responses to new conditions that life presents. In the past, experience was held in high esteem. Those with practical skills were respected and passed on their knowledge through effective parenting, apprenticeships and other direct training.
As civilizations age and become more complex in their divisions of labor, many of those individuals far removed from providing for their own survival tend to become arrogant toward those doing the providing. They develop a sense of entitlement and begin to think the easy life will endure indefinitely. In modern western societies, the privileged class has expanded to include those without power or wealth that have the physical ability but possess little motivation for taking responsibility for providing for themselves. This situation is only possible in a complex society where the classes of power and wealth allow and promote it as a means to maintain their privileged status, such as a source of votes. It is a symptom of decay in the functional fabric of a civilization, and portends an impending collapse. For, eventually the providers reject the increasing burden expected of them coupled with shrinking benefits to their own well-being.
When the tipping point is reached, perhaps precipitated by a natural or economic calamity or war, the providers opt-out and walk away, or go underground or otherwise stop feeding the system that despises them but depends upon them. It has happened thousands of times before on every continent, and is likely to do so as long as we have civilizations –because as humans we have never changed our behavior patterns. Our biological motivations that include greed and control over others remain the same as they were from the beginning, despite each generation’s presumption of cultural sophistication. We are doomed to repeat our worst scenarios, and we do so with stunning regularity. Unfortunately, we live short lives relative to our phylogenetic history, and each generation thinks it is wiser and more special than any other, and this time will be different. But it never is.
The providers are the segment of society with the practical skills, adapatability, experience in meeting new challenges that life throws at them. They know it will not be easy, but it never has been for them, yet they are survivors, and have the best probability of succeeding in a changed world. Such people are the recipients of genes that were passed down since before our kind emerged from the caves. Traits that motivate them to face life on at its fundamental level –to take control of their life to the extent they are able. To meet it head-on, continually embrace challenges of learning new skill sets, explore new horizons, welcome new experiences to test themselves. In this they find their self-worth. By doing these things they know they are alive and living a useful life. They succeed where the privileged and weak-minded often fail –in continually exploring and developing their highest personal potential. Of being the best they can possibly be under any circumstances they face.
They have the confidence to persevere, because they have navigated through similar difficulties before. They pulled themselves up off the ground many times in the past when things seemed hopeless, weathered many storms, depended on their own judgment and took responsibility for themselves. They are not heroes, but merely humans with a well developed sense of self-reliance that they apply in their daily lives. They are survivors no different than those with similar traits that walked upright a million years before them. They only use different tools, wear different clothes and get from place to place faster. They were the hunters, the gatherers, the explorers, the pioneers, the guild workers, the independent thinkers, the entrepreneurs, the small business owners. They will find a way when their path is blocked, when life becomes difficult, when others tell them they cannot. They persevere because they have the will to depend upon themselves. They are searchers and doers, and without them we have no future as a species. I’m glad that I count myself among their number, and admire those of you with such qualities. Be proud of who you are and what you do every day to better yourself and the world around you, despite the slackers, the doubters, the chronic low-achievers.
When the system fails and the caretaker dies, you will find a way through it. Your smug and shiftless neighbor that despised you will still be helpless, and you may choose whether or not to take on a provider role for him out of compassion. But, do not expect that he will be grateful or respect you for it. And the human drama will cycle once again.
Now, please excuse me, for I need to go out into my garden and pull some weeds.
Joel Smith
