Can you really ‘believe’ in several contradictory ‘truths.’
As you know I am not a great believer in anything. I think belief is a meaningless word – it seems to say something important but doesn’t. If you substitute the word ‘prefer’ then It’s true character is revealed – for example; “I prefer God” sounds pretty drippy but essentially that’s what “I believe in God” amounts to – a statement of your own preference for God over no God. Setting ‘believe’ aside, as well as being meaningless, truth is a very dangerous concept – again I would argue it doesn’t exist other than as a convenient measure of personal preference and an excuse for divisiveness. The truth is no more ‘out there’ than God. Truth is just an individual snapshot of a preference expressed in a moment in time that has already passed. As such it means nothing at all. Still dangerous though – hmm that seems paradoxical. So down to the nitty gritty – if this is the case then it is perfectly ok to believe in several contradictory truths – so here goes with the one that troubles me.
I don’t like bullies but neither do I like bullies being bullied by crowds. Let’s take our local landowner – without doubt a bully and should rightly be guillotined, but were he to be set upon by a braying crowd of local self righteous lefties bearing flaming torches, like me – I would be inclined to whisk him away to a safe place under my woollen cloak. That’s just because braying crowds are often peopled by angry opportunist nits for whom I have no respect. Braying crowds outside the Old Bailey to spit at the latest murderer, rapist, Paedophile being a nauseating case in point. I actually end up despising them more than the perpetrator of the crime.
Personally this view is particularly troublesome when it comes to union campaigns. Naturally I am a member of a Union, naturally I support the workers right to take action including strike action but boy do I resent it when the union starts throwing its weight around and telling me or others what to do. This reminds me of a little boy who wants his friend to come round to play cars but does not want his friend to touch his cars in case he spoils them – that’s me by the way. I cried.
So to sum up – can you believe in the empowerment of the individual over the state while believing in the empowerment of the state over any individual you happen not to like? That really does sound like having your cake and eating it? Sadly it’s the ‘truth’ of my political convictions – oh boy, better start again from scratch.
There’s a wonderful quote from Benjamin Franklin. “There are three sorts of people in the world: Those who are immovable, people who don’t get it, they don’t want to get it, they’re not going to do anything about it; there are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it; and there are people who move, people who make things happen.” And if we can encourage more people, that will be a movement. And if the movement is strong enough, that’s, in the best sense of the word, a revolution. And that’s what we need.
That’s from a speech by Ken Robinson. Man Who Talks Sense.
Yes he really does. I looked him and read more. Thanks Paul.