The Trees - An Analogy of the Struggle for Equality and The Likely Outcome Once it is Achieved

Rush - Neil Peart, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson Compulsory listening if you grew up in Canada in the 1970's/80's. If you grew up in Canada during the 1970's/80's, it is quite probable that the rock band Rush occupied a rather prominent place in the soundtrack of your childhood and adolescent years. As an aspiring young writer, I was especially drawn to the craftsmanship of Neil Peart's intelligent and insightful lyrics. I haven't actively pursued the band for well over two decades, but I was reminded of one of their lesser known songs the other day as I browsed through a series of utterly ridiculous articles crying out for greater equality and other idiocies coloring the PC spectrum. Released about a quarter of a century ago, The Trees is a rather scathing and spot-on critique and analogy of all of those who scream oppression and fight for their precious equality. Through the simple analogy of a forest, it clearly outlines the kind of equality that the culture war and PC campaigns would achieve.

"The Trees"

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light

But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'

Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc

Unfortunately, I feel that this is the equality that will reign once the Leftists are done. Kurt Vonnegut offers a similar nightmare scenario in his short story Harrison Bergeron. It doesn't require a great deal of perspicacity to see that in many instances the equality presented in The Trees already exists. There is no ascending up, only a cutting down. This is the world the noble Leftists are blindly fighting for. God bless them for their noble efforts.