There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors.
— Jim Morrison, American singer and songwriter
The germ warfare that is visiting us has made us wonder whether medical experts have discovered an effective vaccine that could either prevent the onslaught or cure the clinically evident effects caused by this deadly virus, or do both.
This has birthed an instant doubt factory manned by a thousand employees paid by varying degrees of uncertainty. The recruiting of lemmings is most certainly a non-issue.
The consumer, voter, subject, citizen, denizen, or standard moron, has to make it his or her business to search and to know what the devil is happening. Did we learn anything from the great philosophers, writers, scholars, religionists, militarists, conquerors and statesmen, inventors and entrepreneurs, manufacturers and producers, or did we dedicate ourselves to turn elsewhere for instruction, direction, correction and guaranteed destruction?
Superpowers with master regimes hate unmasking the unknown. When the US Constitution was written, the “We, the People…” did not include Indigenous People, women, white non-property owners and imported African slaves. Yet, they wanted a “more perfect Union” when they actually meant a more perfect military to instil lasting fear through infinite meddling with other regimes in Asia!
Outright lies and distortions by self-styled experts given free passes through the political labyrinth spitting out suspect scholarly articles, essays and opinions which become dangerous state policies do not pull a shroud over the unknown. Not all are lemmings waiting for the slaughterhouse queue.
From Socrates to Sadhguru, we have been armed with rich and fertile philosophical teachings that have carved niches in the tenets of law, justice and government where the disconnect from reality and the abstract is blatantly evident. Between these two extremes exist a wasteland of hate, hubris, hype, hope and hypocrisy when you factor in slavery (read: labour), and the treatment of Indigenous People.
From Nicodemus to Nietzsche, we are in constant search of answers based on what little we know within the social and political environment we live in. The “what’s-this-all-about” must be replaced with “why-is-this-happening,” and “how-do-we-solve this malaise.” The solutions and remedies lie solely with a well-disciplined People and not with well-controlled voters.
The disciplined human being today is the consumer, the customer, the user of goods and services who votes (and chooses) with his money, credit card, cheques or by barter. He alone can stop the motor of the economy if he chooses not to purchase anything or everything except food and other basic necessities.
The American Declaration of Independence claims a citizens’ right to rebellion and redemption if and when it become intolerable and evident that Big Brother is shirking ability, responsibility, and accountability under the law. The humanist right to replace and displace him is inevitable.
Insurrection aside, this could be rejuvenation. That depends on whether you are willing to unmask the unknown.
Consorting with any “renegade” philosophy with emphasis on selfishness as advocated by Ayn Rand’s objectivism opens many doors. The key question is whether it is possible to help others without first being able to thoroughly equip yourself? This pits the individual and the state into the immortal combat of who is more dependent and reliable, responsible and accountable.
Michel Foucault (1926-1984) contemplated the unique relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are deployed as a form of social control through entrenched institutions in government and society. This is a close resemblance to Friedrich Nietzsche’s crusade in unmasking the motives behind Western religion, morality and philosophy that deeply affected generations of people, voters, consumers, politicians, theologians, psychologists, poets, novelists and playwrights.
In 2020, we look back at the intellectual baggage and religious garbage we have faithfully collected because some Western crackpots believed they could fashion and control Eastern thought which unmasked the unknown from “I am, therefore Thou art” to “Thou art, therefore I am.”
An unexamined life is not worth living taught Socrates more than 2000 years ago for which the state ordered his execution. He never repented, apologised, nor offered a defence for his beliefs.
His search was over when he ended his life courtesy hemlock, but there is something he left behind that has bedazzled us for more than two thousand years – the innate power within us to unmask the unknown and the unknowable through the doors of reason without being dismissed as faulty or creaky logic because undisciplined reason is the most naïve of all superstitions.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
