From: markk@cypress.West.Sun.COM (Mark Kampe)
Subject: Re: Email Without Tears 9312 (LONG OTO EPUB)
Date: 7 Dec 1993 18:21:05 GMT

A most provocative story.

Truth occupies a strange place in our minds.  Everything else in life
is subject to compromise, or to equivocations as to its meaning
... but Truth stands out as the only uneclipsable light.  Truth does
not require meaning or justification.  The pursuit of Truth is
generally recognized as a high calling, and our greatest minds have
dedicated their lives to the pursuit of Truth (in various forms).

Yet Truth is a cold lover, who passively accepts our devotion, and
gives us in return nothing more than our own satisfaction for having
served in the temple.  All who aspire to serve Truth come to recognize
that the the pursuit of Truth will eventually demand that we renounce
all of the things that have given us comfort.  Dedication to Truth
requires that we follow it, wherever it may lead us ... and we cannot
turn away from the path, merely because we do not like the direction
in which it leads.

In some perverse sense, we have elevated to divinity a pursuit that
threatens to strip of us our humanity.  Faith might tell us that the
place to which we are lead will be a place of higher humanity.  The
obvious falsehoods that underly faith suggest however that such an
optimistic ideal is itself a falsehood.  It may not be unjustified to
fear that the pure pursuit of Truth will leave us as complex, chaotic
and powerful creatures, condemned to a God-like awareness of their own
mortality, and whose lives have no intrinsic meaning or purpose.

We cannot blaspheme against the divine Truth, but must we acceed to
such a path?  There may be no Truth in beauty, yet beauty enriches our
lives.  There may be no Truth in love, yet love brings us to enrich
the lives of others.  There may be no Truth in a 'meaning of life',
yet life can serve and achieve purposes.  All of these things are
delusion, yet their effects are real (although the meaning of those
effects are again entirely subjective :-).

We find ourselves to be almost innately bound to the pursuit of
"Truth", and simultaneously locked into an existance where all value
derives from delusion.  What a fine line we must walk!  If we stray
too far into delusion, our lives may serve the wrong purpose.  If we
stray too far from delusion our lives may lose all value and purpose.

In our ancient past, when few people had the training to recognize and
pursue Truth, the solution was found in giving them a well contrived
and well managed delusion.  It naturally had many problems, but it
sort of worked.

Now, as more and more people gain the ability to recognize delusion,
the old solution begins to unravel ... but where is its replacement?
How can people acquire calibrated and valuable delusions when they
recognize them as such?

As individuals, we may consciously choose the delusions we accept,
recognizing them as such, but also understanding why we have accepted
them.  This is a delicate process of dynamic equilibrium, and probably
"the right answer" for many people.  This leaves us free to pursue
Truth, gives us (most of) the benefits of a good delusion, and also
gives us room to adjust our delusions if they do not seem to be
serving us adequately.  The danger, of course, is that we know that we
have turned away from Truth, and having done so may find we have
suffered a spiritually mortal wound.

What about people who are not prepared to accept "a useful delusion"?
Well, we can always tell them that they are "not delusions at all, but
a higher Truth".  Of course, this leaves us with the problem of
dealing with inconsitancies in the delusion ... but we can (very
rightly) claim that "faith is the key", and that will probably be
sufficient to dismiss most objections.  The danger, of course, is that
these people must either blind themselves to many aspects of external
reality (generally a poor choice) or risk the complete collapse of the
useful delusions (sometimes a worse choice).

We do indeed walk along a high and narrow precipice ... and the value
of an inspired "Liar" is not a thing to be underestimated.  A well
crafted "Lie" may indeed convey more (and greater) truth and an
accurate recounting.