16 May 2011

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe  
    Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,  
    'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all  
    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
       - John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn

Independent thinking requires full consciousness and mindfulness of what we choose to accept or refuse. Part of what makes that independent thinking so difficult is that the people who want to control us make it very easy to remain somnambulent. Watching Fox news isn't the problem; it's that there's no effort to watch anything else. The truth in a large society is always arrived at through the process of triangulation -- truth is a convergence of facts, logic and actions that lead to inescapable conclusions.

A. Conan Doyle said it best through the voice of his Sherlock Holmes character: "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

A close second is a quote by Timothy Leary: "To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself."

Finally, my buddy George Orwell said, "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

And that, my friends, is triangulation. The truth is in the above three statements.

Excuse me. I'm off to find my magnifying glass. The truth is waiting.

R.B.