Trained For Submission?

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!”

It occurred to me recently that my brain has absorbed this life “lesson” thousands of times thanks to the brain-dead characters from the Looney Tunes pantheon. 

When confronted with challenging opposition, the wise advice of Porky Pig or Daffy Duck (or whichever moronic representation of human incompetence it may be) is to simply join our “enemies” rather than continue the struggle.

I’m not sure how this “philosophy” coincides with the win-at-all-costs competitive spirit that exists at every level within our culture, but apparently it is of crucial importance that a human child believes it is best to join the “winning” team rather than continue to pursue personal victory.  I suppose the obvious connection is... it is better to "win" even when that means changing sides, though this is clearly contradictory to the idea that competition and earning victory is supposed to "build character". 

I’m sure this attitude of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” is ideal for Wall Street trading and backroom deals in which a select few win while the vast majority lose.  Sadly, when a motto as pathetic as this forms the pinnacle of wisdom offered by our childhood “entertainment”, we all lose in the end.

When are we going to wake-up to the fact that we’ve been conditioned for submission our entire lives?  It started with mind-numbing cartoons and continued through our entire educational process. 

Sit down.  Shut-up.  Memorize this fake history.  Eat your num-nums.  And whatever you do, make sure you’re on the winning side, even when the winners hate everything you stand for.