I have other priorities. First I have to save the world. Then I have to monitor my coronary artery disease. Then I choose to take care of family as best I can. Then there are 233 other priorities. Yet every visit to the dentist they insist that I move my teeth from #237 to #1. Also at their insistence, because plaque apparently likes my teeth as much as it likes my arteries, I now visit for a cleaning three times per year. I can't remember the last time I had a cavity; at least 10 years. And so what if at the age of 62 I still have a baby tooth. According to them this baby tooth has been on the cusp of falling out for forty years and should just be pulled and capped or bridged or some such nonsense that will transfer money I don't have from my pocket to theirs. To be fair, I suppose in that setting, the dentist office, they feel teeth should be the #1 priority because it is their job and they are at work. Still, I have been talked out of wisdom teeth; I am going to hold on to my baby tooth until it leaves me or until I leave it. It is interesting, babies and very young children are curious, questioning, and oh so very actively hopeful. And as I write this I realize that this insistence on suppressing active, hopeful, curious questioning, removing wisdom, and demanding responsible conformity is consistent with our insistence today on bureaucracy, convention, certainty, division. All these years, all these decades, my dentist has merely been practicing conservative politics. Red, blue, or purple, in a capitalist regime or any bureaucracy, peel away two or three top layers and you will find that underneath we are all conservative. We have no choice. And I suppose that leaders, in any setting or circumstance – dentist or politician, Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal – feel that in their role they must project an aura of calm control which requires conservative systematized convention and certainty and discourages anything outside-the-box, much less radical. According to the Scientific American (from October 26, 2020) “On the whole, the research shows, conservatives desire security, predictability and authority.” And today, regardless of contrary proclamations, I see our leadership, our bureaucracy, our system, our selves, as conservative. Yet today, more than ever before, we need radical not only to progress, but to survive. But no. We remain insistent. “Rip that baby tooth out! We don't have time for all the curiosity and questions! And if you refuse to part from it, every time I see you I will remind you that you don't need it; that our way is a better way. And as for those wisdom teeth? They will only cause pain and suffering. We can take them and you can be comfortable with responsible conformity.” Why is it not okay to hold on to a baby tooth? Or to suffer for wisdom? To question the way? To think outside-the-box? I want to believe I am autonomous and in control. You want to believe the same. We fear any threat to our freedom and independence. And because our intelligence exceeds our wisdom, we will always believe that we will always know better. Yet here we sit, every one of us trapped and or suppressed in some way, not by other humans in charge, but by systematized convention, conservative politics, an artificial intelligence in its own right, that will not let go.

Fried Chicken.