All is for the best
Believe in what we’re told
Blind men in the market
Buying what we’re sold
– BU2B, Rush
It took scouring about 1,500 years of history for me to come up with a list of about 100 niceties that we are to believe, as incredible as some of these might be.
“As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.”
– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
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If I spent a few minutes on it, I could probably come up with one hundred more just from the last five years – maybe even just from the year 2020. I won’t spend time on this; you know the list as well as I do.
Open your eyes
And turn off your mind
– Just Let Me Breathe, Dream Theater
I have thought about how easy it would be if I just believed – believed without questioning, believed without thinking. Heck, I don’t even have to believe it; just act as if I believed it. I could watch CNN or MSNBC: whatever they told me, that’s what I would act on, that’s what I would repeat to my colleagues, friends, and family. No muss, no fuss.
How much easier life would be if I truly believed – thus avoiding any internal contradictions. Of course, if I could turn off my moral compass and my interest in truth, it would be easier still. Not that I claim to have a corner on truth; just that I would appreciate a more expansive investigation by those deigned to inform us.
But there I go; I can’t even type a few words without falling off the wagon. It would be so easy if I just believed, or at least acted as if I believe.
Just close your mind
You can find all you need with your eyes
Of course, the “news” tomorrow might be the exact opposite of the news today, just like Orwell’s “Hate Week”:
…at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.
There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy.
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You wouldn’t be so easily fooled, I am sure. Me? Why wouldn’t I go along, along with everyone else? How easy that would be:
He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia!
Everyone just “knew.” How easy it would be to get caught up in that “wave of understanding.” Life could be just that simple, if I let it. Just like how several covid restrictions magically have disappeared in the course of the last week. What happened about a week ago that hadn’t happened in the last ten months? Damn, there I go again. I guess achieving the easy life is not so easy…at least for some of us.
Conclusion
Feed my head with simple thoughts
Life would be much easier if I just learned how to swallow.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
