There is a bird that has decided to declare war on my window. It seems that he is offended by the bird he imagines that he sees in there. I have watched him attack, with furious futility, over and over again, of course to no avail. I am afraid that at some point he will be hurt or even killed.
Today, as I was watching and listening to him bang repeatedly into the window, pecking furiously at the offender, it occurred to me that his behavior was intended to present to me an elegant metaphor.
The bird now has a name. I call him “Antifa”. He is too young to have developed any of the wisdom one gains from life experience and, unlike the majority of his peers, he has been distracted by an illusion.
His reflection, whom I have named “Fash” does not really exist, of course. Nonetheless, Antifa sees him and hates him. Clearly, his bird brain is not sufficiently developed for him to realize that what he is looking at is really just himself, reflected.
What Antifa represents, Fash represents the perfect opposite. Yet, they are the same bird in the same place at the same time, each made possible in that place only by the other.
Whenever there is an event that brings Antifa near the window and he remembers to take umbrage at Fash’s existence, Fash magically presents himself, glad to oblige Antifa’s raid. Fash always holds his own, and Antifa eventually retires, frustrated, only to repeat the performance the next time the opportunity presents itself.
I do hope that Antifa realizes that he is actually attacking a mirror image of himself, and ceases his hostile action before he gets his brains bashed in. If not, I do hope that observers realize that Fash is really not the Cain to Antifa’s Abel.
A much more intellectual, refined, and cogent treatment of the true subject of this metaphor may be found in several articles (including the linked/current one) at The Declination — a blog which I heartily recommend.