Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Truth is a Dangerous Thing

Yes it is. It is often inconvenient; uncomfortable, embarrassing- confining under the wrong circumstances and... dangerous. There are countless examples in history of how the truth interferes with you; ask Galileo, Copernicus and Giordano Bruno.

It’s no different today than it ever was. One of the most amazing things is how people will insist on supporting a lie even when the truth is patently obvious. Quite often the people who support a lie are completely uninformed about the details that compose the lie or the truth of the matter. They just decide something is so because that is what they were told and that’s that. In many cases, when the lie is coming from the authorities; even though it is a known fact that the particular authorities have lied about nearly everything they have said previously, it’s just easier to accept and often safer too.

Another thing about lies is that when they are routinely reported in the various media they take upon themselves the veneer of the plausible. When you factor in government spokespeople and seemingly respectable members of the business and religious worlds along with anyone from anywhere who gets face time in front of you due to a perceived expertise on the matter under discussion- you can find yourself hemmed in on all sides by the sirens singing and unless you are one of the few; those with a thirst for the real, a curious nature that won’t be diverted or an intellect that possesses an objective reasoning capacity it is likely to overwhelm you. If you are such a person, things begin to reveal themselves to you in a way they do not reveal themselves to the majority of personalities under hypnotic control.

It is nearly impossible to convince a hypnotized person of their state because they are, in fact, hypnotized. It’s the same with dreaming and takes place in the same area of the mind. Only suffering seems to have any effect on the dreaming, hypnotized state. Sooner or later, after many traumas and disappointments, something within the person begins to long for a way out. Until the soul becomes thirsty for reality it will go on being the ball in the pinball machine and each life is counted as each ball goes down the chute and another ball comes into play.

Those who are not hypnotized are aware of a divine symmetry in the physical universe. It’s a natural and obvious perception. They also know that everything visible has an invisible source. It’s basic math. It is how physicists finally came to the realization that the universe is thought born. Independent thought is possible... however, the majority of humanity is herded like livestock by the common thoughts of their time; their hungers and hopes, their weaknesses and all of the common drives that hide the true light behind the veil of phenomena.

People want to be safe. Safety without the awareness of what real security consists of is only a temporary fix. It doesn’t matter how big your walls are, how many guards and guns you have. You may command armies but disease, old age and death will find a way in. Watching people go about their lives as if there were some permanence and harmony that will always continue is like being in a mental institution. It can be tough being in an institution when you aren’t actually crazy. You find that you have to swim in the opposite direction of the other fish without drawing attention to yourself.

People do not want to hear the truth. The truth is the enemy of all that they attempt to build for themselves. The truth knows that wealth is often a curse and beauty too. Fame and power lead you into a world very different than you imagined it to be before you set out in pursuit of these states. But the power of the hypnosis is very strong. It seems that most people are just incapable of stepping outside of their subjective state for long enough to look directly at their condition.

This vast shopping mall of a world offers a million products. It promises you everything and delivers none of what it promises aside from temporary self-forgetting. The desire to escape from reflection on the profundity of now is a consuming thing. It is big business. The main business of the world is to make you forget why you are here. That’s enough for most people. If replacing the truth with something closer to the heart’s desire puts a rosy light on the approaching tomb of darkness then, why not? That is something for everyone to ponder, or more likely avoid, at their leisure.

Searching for the truth is like panning for gold in a dangerous stream. Telling the truth is akin to painting a target on your forehead. Why would you tell the truth? Telling the truth goes contrary to the mercantile instincts and contrary to the mercantile game set of the world you walk in. Those who manufacture the illusion of the manifest world are not amused by the things you say which reveal the world to be something else beneath its air-brushed, glossy exterior.

There has been an opportunistic machine, relentlessly at work for 6 years because of an attack that took place on New York City. Observing where certain powerful forces have taken the world since, it should stir the curiosity of anyone possessing any as to how serendipitously fortunate this event was for them. It has justified all manner of violence, repression and lies and effectively divided the country against itself. It has cost the lives of a million Iraqis and displaced millions more. It has justified the ongoing and brutal hammering of The Palestinians. It has resulted in the suspension of many previous freedoms and that goes on apace as I speak. Well, it could be coincidence.

But... when one actually investigates the evidence one finds that there is very little to support the official version and a quantitatively enormous amount of evidence that says something smells bad. If what we had been told was true there would have been no resistance of the sort that occurred when questions arose and there was hard refusal on the part of the government to release key evidence that has yet to be released today. Things just don’t add up; not just a few things but a mountain of things.

If someone knows certain truths, for some reason, they feel compelled to share them. Parents like to pass on important truths to their children. Wanting to share the truth with others seems to be born out of love and compassion for others. What other reason could there be? There’s no money in the truth. The truth is already a currency of its own. Shading and shaping the truth does have money in it, lots of money. You can’t really shade and shape the truth but you can make it appear so.

Caring about the truth is a hard thing. People really don’t want to hear it. They are already afraid of what the truth might be which, in a particular way, indicates that they may well know what the truth is after all.

If you are going to tell the truth- and God help you if you do- you can’t be concerned with the static that ensues and it’s pointless to argue about it. It either is or it isn’t and that will show itself in time as it did in the case of Galileo and many others. It comes down in the end- as does everything- to what you value and hold dear. It speaks to intention and ultimately, to where you end up.

In the New Testament there is made mention of a broad highway and a narrow, seldom used road. On this broad highway are all of the souls who pursue the shiny things and the lies which they hope will come true. On the narrow path are those few souls engaged in the truth’s pursuit of itself. It’s been going on since the beginning and it goes on today the same as it ever did. The forces massed against the truth and the methods of aggression against those who would tell it are the same as ever. The saving grace within the intensity of struggle for the light of the truth is that the truth is a living thing and it endures and will endure long after the world that opposes it is gone.

The truth is a dangerous thing but not nearly as dangerous as the alternatives.

Visible sings: Songwriter by Les Visible♫ Gone Baby Gone ♫
'Gone Baby Gone' is track no. 6 of 10 on Visible's 2006 album 'Songwriter'
Lyrics (pops up)

Songwriter by Les Visible

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've wondered why I was here for as long as I was able to wonder anything (and remember it). I felt old even when I was very young. Well maybe 'old' isn't the right word but I didn't feel young.

As for "the pursuit of shiny things", I already possess everything I need or want with the exception of unlimited free time to do as I please. I'm not rich but I can think of no other thing that would add an ounce of happiness or fulfillment to my life. I still pursue money because, well, that's what people do. And becoming financially independent is important to me so I can devote my time to better things than making money. I think one of the most harmful lies in this society of ours is the one that has enslaved three fourths of the population to their car payment, plasma screen tv, the house they really can't afford, and all the other spawn of an unquestioning obedience to mass marketing.

Ben

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite phrases is "The truth shall set you off."

I like it partly because I've seen it to be the case, and partly because some people genuinely do not want, nor can handle, one of the primary consequences of seeking truth: freedom (I mean the difficult kind of freedom, not the "consumer" variety). I just wish that those who can't handle freedom would go someplace where they don't have to instead of trying to reduce everyone else's to a level their own fearful natures can tolerate.

You wrote:

"Watching people go about their lives as if there were some permanence and harmony that will always continue is like being in a mental institution. It can be tough being in an institution when you aren’t actually crazy. You find that you have to swim in the opposite direction of the other fish without drawing attention to yourself."

That's exactly why I'm the Village Idiot. After all, it's the village that decides who their idiot is, and they usually pick the person who seems a little too different. I accept that title because in my village, I consider it an honor! And, in the spirit of not drawing attention to oneself, it's much better to be thought a harmless fool than a disconcerting, paranoid freak (live and learn!).

One reason I think many people don't want to seek truth is that they believe if they are not cognizant of the specifics, they aren't guilty of complicity. They intuitively know they don't want to be complicit because at a deeper level they know EXACTLY what's going on and how morally indefensible it is.

Eric Hoffer once pointed out that "Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves."

It doesn't take much brainpower to grasp the connection between the going's-on in Iraq (or the Middle East in general) and our cheap'n'easy lifestyle here in the U.S., and with no viable alternative to oil available at the scale necessary to maintain this paradigm we can easily see how any disruptions in the Sacred Flow would force us to... THINK.

And as Bertrand Russell observed a long time ago:

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

The brain needs exercise to be strong and work well (just like our bodies do), but judging by what I see when I look around me, exercise of any kind is not very popular these days. I try to encourage mind/body exercise whenever possible, but, well, you know how it is... the choir readily agrees but the flock just stares at me with a vacant look on their face.

I wonder what OJ Simpson is up to today... and are Brad and Angelina really headed toward Splitsville?!? We don't want rumors; we want the TRUTH!

Wheeeeeee!

UnSanely,

The Village Idiot

Anonymous said...

Man I love this essay. Here's one thought -- it's the lying to oneself, the self-deceptions which create/cause the hypnosis of which you speak.

And it ties in with what Village Idiot posted:

"Eric Hoffer once pointed out that "Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves."

Yeah.

ANd like you said, Methinks that those who are uncomfortable with truth actually already have a sense of what it is. Why else would they fear/despise it so much?

Lying to oneself is the worst, imo. The absolute worst. An utter waste of life. Bloody tragic.

Some people will go to unbelievable lengths to protect/maintain the lies they've told themselves and in which they're heavily invested. Many will even go to their
graves cleaving to their self-deceptions. To me this is utterly mind boggling! Then again, I've seen what it is that some of them fear...it's called shame. They are so afraid of being shamed, even of being embarrassed, that they won't admit to being wrong about a thing, or won't admit to having done a wrong thing. Man oh man,
how many times have I seen this! sigh.

Alas...like you said, "it’s pointless to argue about it."

Who? What? Where? When? Why? Methinks those are the essential questions...pointing to truth. Who and/or what am I? Where did I come from and Where am I
going? (when) How long have I got? Why am I here?

We need (to take) the time to think, to reflect, to wonder, to wander. Precious time that we (waste) often give away, that we surrender in childish pursuits. Lusting after shiny trinkets for instant gratification which never lasts, which can never satisfy...and onto lusting after the next instant gratification...wasting our time, thus our lives. btw, Not to be confused with childlike pursuits, which imo are important/necessary, fun, and beneficial.

"Caring about the truth is a hard thing." Yup. But I find comfort in knowing this, "that s/he who cares the most wins", to paraphrase Sun Tzu from Art of War.

So now I wonder, is most communication either (a) preaching to the choir, or (b) confounding the flock? Or something else? And I'll wonder upon this, until I
wonder upon something else. heeheehee ;)

Thank you Les, and others too :)

Ciao fer now, annemarie

Anonymous said...

Lennon/McCartney)

Day after day, alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
As he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking percetly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

He never listen to them
He knows that they're the fools
They don't like him
The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

Visible said...

new essay at Visible Origami

http://lesvisible.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

KANSAS

"Dust In The Wind"

I close my eyes,
only for a moment
and the moments gone
All my dreams,
pass before my eyes a curiosity
Dust in the wind,
all they are is dust in the wind

Some old song,
just a drop of water
in the endless sea
All we do, crumbles to the ground
though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind

Now, don´t hang on,
nothing last forever
but the Earth and sky
It slips away
and all your money
won`t another minute buy

Dust in the wind,
all we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind,
Dust in the wind. (Livgren)

Posted By: S.A. Homes

Duke said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

The truth must needs be set free.

annemarie

Anonymous said...

Annemarie the good news is that the truth has been set free. The bad news is that the administrator has deleted my comment, which is the truth, thus verifying that the truth is a dangerous thing.

Visible said...

You might just want to resubmit the comment. I'm not aware of this action. I am aware of your anonymity... no comments have been deleted. It's possible one didn't get posted. But I don't recall that either. So... we'll see won't we?

Visible said...

Now I see, yes indeed, I did remove your comment because it was an advertisement. I have nothing against people putting in links here as long as they present it in the course of offering an opinion or as a representation of their own work in the context of their opinion. But you basically said nothing except, "Hey, come over here." You also didn't explain what it was about. That's not allowed. This isn't a billboard for you to route traffic to your site. What's worse is that I haven't seen you here before. You just show up and tag the place.

I stand by my action. No opinion got deleted. You want to put an opinion in, go right ahead.

Duke said...

Peace be with the reader.
I happen to get to your essay, by means of a link from "The Truth Seeker".
This is a resubmission of my comment which you removed because i mentioned the link to our web site.My second comment was done anonymously in order to get my message out.This comment is not anonymous, my real name is Duke.

It is indeed true that "The Truth is a Dangerous Thing". I commend you for writing an essay that carries a real message in this chaotic world we live in. On our web site there is a short message entitled: "The Inconvenient Reality". It is a response to All Gore's
"An Inconvenient Truth". The message clearly shows, by means of a practical example, how the reality get's distorted by natural man. Global warming is only one of the symptoms of a much greater problem. I am thankful for the opportunity to resubmit my comment.

Anonymous said...

re: It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again
'Everywhere I went the chicken could see.'
Don't these people realise this!!
Don't they realise that 'we' will catch up to them? At some point!
Revolution is not only a thing of the past!!
Tony

Visible said...

Hey there Mr. (not) Village Idiot. I appreciated everything you had to say, but then I always do. I don't know if you'll be back around to see this.

I don't do much answering in the threads because it can get banal for me and I don't want to wind up reflexive and insincere. For whatever reason, I came back to say this and... now don't know what else to say.

Anonymous said...

Deception is so very painful, on all levels, the truth is the only effective, long lasting painkiller. Its very simple, deception tears us apart, truth builds us up. Deception always brings false emotions and destructive action, truth is an arrow to the point. Why would anyone choose to dwell in hurt, fear, misery and false hope? Truth ends suffering. Wherever on the Earth life is miserable, it is because of deception.

Anonymous said...

Anti-zionist GRP

Tony





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