Gods And Fools

Vive la difference

There are people who know how the world works, and there are people who seek to know how the world works. I prefer the company of the latter.

The Uncertainty Principle

Just as the Doppler Effect has a human component, so to does Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. The quantum physicist notices that, at the sub-atomic level, the very manner in which we observe a phenomenon affects the phenomenon. Observing one aspect of a particle may alter another aspect of that particle. In short, we cannot say anything purely objective about reality; we affect it by our very presence.

In the same way, we cannot make objective statements about other people, because how we observe them and interact with them fundamentally changes who they are or who they can hope to become.

The Doppler Effect

When moves toward us, they do not appear as compelling as when they move away from us. When we move toward others, we do not appear as compelling to them as when we move away from them.

It is the Doppler Effect on a human scale, with us preferring a red shift to a blue one.

Sorry about that

I announce to you and the world that my god is the only reliable and potent deity to guide human affairs, and that the rest of you err in serving other gods. Then I fail to follow my own god's directives. Do I now owe an apology to my god, or to you and the world?

From acerbic to sacharine

It appears to be a consequence of having young children that the adult greatly increases in a tolerance of and appetite for what once was dismissed as corny. It is around this time, not coincidentally, that the person of lapsed faith returns, children in tow, to his church, mosque or temple.

Rationalizing the Man in the Mirror

The healthy or wise thing is too frequently impractical or uninteresting. That explains the state we're in as well as anything.

The Paradox

In almost every case of divorce I've witnessed, Person A works tirelessly to maintain a marriage with Person B, who is more ambivalent about staying the course.  

Person A inevitably grows exhausted and bitter -- and then takes decisive action to close out the marriage. Inevitably, Person B only then has an epiphany about what he or she is losing. Person B begs for a second chance, only to hear from Person A that there is no love left to share.

At one level, the divorce is Person A's vengeance against the half-heartedness of Person B. The irony is that if Person A had mirrored Person B's ambivalence instead of trying so fiercely to keep the marriage together, they might have managed to stay together.

Past Time

The extent to which we underachieve may be proportional to the effort we expend measuring the greatness of our idols.

Pecking order

A person is moved first by his personal loyalties, then by his political affiliation, then by his temperament and worldview, and only then by the actual doctrines of the religion to which he belongs. This is equally true for the casual believer and the fanatic.

Looking back at Narcissus

The narcissist, personified by Icarus, seeks to pierce heaven yet invariably crashes to earth. Yet heaven in its grace often hides the crash from the eyes of most mortals. The narcissist races off a cliff and for a brief moment appears to fly. Most of us see only the image of the airborne hero, and that image remains in our mind forever. Perhaps this overly exalted memory, rather than the painful reality of the subsequent crash, is heaven's debt to the narcissist. After all, it is the agitated and deluded narcissist who seems to move humanity in ways beyond the capacity or the interest of the humble and self-actualized person. There must, in the end, be some payoff for the exhausting effort made by the person who thinks himself a god and who often accomplishes some social good through his exhausting effort.