Once upon a time there was a wonderful and prosperous nation inhabited by sentient corn. It was called Cornfield. This nation had a low crime rate and a high standard of living. The Cornians could live their lives in freedom and tranquility and pursue their ideas of happiness.  Cornfield was the envy of the world.

The genetically determined characteristics of the corn, gave Cornfield its unique character and first rate place in the world. Cornfield was as it was because it was full of corn and the corn were, of course, full of the genes that made them corn and not something else.

As years passed, however, the Cornians forgot who and what they were. They became mentally lazy.  They started getting wrong ideas about the nature of existence and their place in it.

And, they started reproducing fewer and fewer stalks because they didn't want to be crowded or inconvenienced by new corn. They became very materialistic, shallow and self-absorbed.

The Cornians even started to falsely believe that their nation was as great as it was because of their written constitution and their ideas about freedom instead of because of who and what they were. They began to devalue themselves and their genes. 

They wrongly started to believe that they had unfettered free will and that their genes were of no moment. They seemed increasingly unable to understand a simple truth: Before they existed as individuals, their genes existed, and it was their genes that had spun them into existence as individuals. Their genes were the projector and they were the projection. The Cornians, as is the case with all living things, were the finished product of the recipe found in their DNA. 

Over time, the reproduction rate of the Cornians fell below replacement levels and Cornfield was being depopulated by the corn themselves as they failed to make more of themselves. This created something of a life vacuum.

And, as you well know, Mother Nature abhors any vacuum--even a life vacuum--and wants to fill it--indeed, she must fill it. If there is a life vacuum--a niche where life can exist, but where it doesn't fully occupy the niche available to it, Mother Nature will take the path of least resistance and add existing life forms to the niche or, if necessary,design a new life form out of other life forms to occupy that niche.

Sure enough, Mother Nature soon said, "Well corn, if you won't fill the Cornfield with your kind, then I'll bring in others to fill it for you.  How about...hmmmm...yes, I'll bring in lettuce and carrots and onions and potatoes and okra and tomatoes and everything else I can think of. So, Mother Nature started bringing all these other plants into the under populated Cornfield.

Now, as you know, these other plants aren't much like corn.  Totally different. But there were those manipulative souls who said that these were just surface differences and not worth spit. "Don't judge your fellow plants by what you see. It's the content of their character that matters," they said like mindless echoes.

The weak-minded among the Cornians believed these anti-scientific lies, and some of them even perversely said, "Diversity is our strength." And some said “We have started to reverse our population decline and we will have a great future. We are all Cornians. Don't put any hyphens in our names.” 

And, most of the corn never realized that they had psychologically lumped their authentic selves--their genetic our and we in with others who were not genetically the same and that they had created an artificial our and we that was not based on anything real or authentic and which actually was harmful to the corn and had the potential to cause the extinction of the corn.

Soon, the corn became a small percentage of the population and Cornfield was now completely changed.

The streets were no longer safe, unemployment was high, crime was endemic, taxes were high as the corn had to pay to support the others and it went on and on. Still, there were those who were absurdly saying that diversity was the strength of Cornfield. 

Meanwhile, there were a few, smarter stalks of corn who said: “Wait a minute. If there is no more corn, how does that help us? We are not lettuce or carrots or any of the others.  They are not us.  We have our genes and they have theirs. If our genes do not survive,we do not survive." 

"We are not Cornians, we are corn. Cornian is a made up word to describe residents of an artificial country called the Cornfield.  We are corn even if there is no cornfield, and we were corn before there was a cornfield. God willing, we will still be corn even if Cornfield collapses under the weight of its own false ideas."

"Are we so blind and stupid" they continued "as to think that this artificial construct that we call the Cornfield, is us, and that we will survive and not become extinct so long as some plant that does not have our genes is on this piece of ground called Cornfield?"

But many of the other corn were swayed by the false ideas of the others and they said that the corn that said these things about corn and genes were corn supremacists and they said that the lettuce and other plants were now Cornians just like them because they also lived in Cornfield.

Time passed and there came a day when the Cornfield still had the name Cornfield, but there was very little corn left there and the character of Cornfield had completely changed.

The corn that had called the smarter ones "corn supremacists" and similar names, now started wondering why Cornfield had changed so much.  But, they didn't wonder for long. They soon died off and became extinct. Mother Nature is not PC.  You either struggle to survive, or you don't survive.

The Cornfield was now full of  everything but corn and all the other plants now called themselves Cornians.

Fortunately, some of the corn that saw what was happening, had moved away from the Cornfield into new fields where they vowed to not let the old lies destroy their new Cornfields.  These were the wise ones who knew that what is essential in all living things is the unique DNA code that makes them this and not that.

Rudyard Kipling understood. In The Stranger, he wrote some eternal truths.