The Conservative Cat

What I learned from this episode is that you humans spend way too much time worrying about what Mom thinks. Like a female cat, one of a female human's most important jobs is to convince the kids to get out and live somewhere else. Because humans don't have pets to take care of them, this is much more complicated than it is for us. Really, all we need is to be able to solve the linear equation required for a successful pounce. That's not even enough for you to be able to pay taxes.

Sylar's mother wants him to be more than a watchmaker and we are led to believe that a need for his mother's approval is what drives Sylar to murder people and steal their powers. The thing is, the not-watchmaker desire (which is a deliberate riff of the famous Albert Einstein quote) comes from the fact that the mother is not entirely sane. I live with the most fanatical collector in the universe, and even by those standards the way Sylar's mother feels about snow globes is over-the-top.

Regardless of ties of blood or position in life, you have to ask yourself continually if you're seeking approval from somebody who is not qualified to make a determination. You can care about someone even if they don't approve of you or you don't approve of them. To a conservative, that's the very definition of tolerance. If someone had taught Sylar to think like a conservative at an early age, he would still be making watches and there would be no need for him to be leaving a trail of dead bodies behind him.

So, don't take this chance. If you know a liberal with a crazy mother, teach them how to view tolerance and love through a conservative lens. You might just save the poor sod from being the recurring villain in a TV show.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat