June 2nd 2010    Tim Candler

    In the expression "hard-wired to believe in a higher power" some find evidence from psychiatry which reinforces a false rumor.  The reality in my view prefers an understanding of the social that places importance on the relationship between authority and obedience, and such is the frequent failure of authority to impress that this "hard-wire" is sublimated to a beyond otherwise it disappears and we are left to find solace in caves.  Inevitable therefore that patterns of behavior are enforced by consistent fondling of idea, and ceremony dramatizes this in a truly unattractive manner.  

    I do understand the often dull process of another's minutiae.   The inching around.  The gobbledygook. The ethnicity of it if you like.  And so much easier when patterns are preset, that way idea retreats into the shrubberies so that individuals might become happy sheep.   Here my own contribution to the rebellion is forsaking the dinner plate for a bowl, and the knife and fork for a spoon and two hands.   Which is the sort of thing that might cause angst and confusion in some observers.

   An exaggeration, I hear.  Not at all, because during ceremony minds belong in cages.  And that access we have to mind through observation quickly determines the asocial.   So we dress up correctly, wear the tie, preserve the dignity of the proceedings.  Which I think is why I firmly believe lunatics should wander amongst us to keep us from abscessing through ceremony into increasingly deluded fools.  And I wish I could fill this role of lunatic, but try as I might, the problem begins for me when I am forced into conjunction with others.   When presented with a dinner plate and a knife and fork, I do not stamp my foot and demand spoon and bowl.  Instead I  become obliging.  

    A depressing thought and an aspect of my behavior that I must soon address.

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