The Warfare Is Mental (TWIM) reflects the mental warfare of an author, screenwriter, publisher, journalist and member of the Writer's Guild of America, who also happens to skateboard. I supported the 2007 WGA Strike and stood the line. There is no word that can accurately summarize my belief system, so I apologize to those who feel more comfortable with labels. I'm a person living on Earth, and while certainly skeptical, I'm certainly no atheist.
Imagine that all of a sudden, you awoke in a strange land you’ve never been to. You have no memory of where you were before, or even if you were before. You find an assortment of perplexing activity and tantalizing distraction all around, with other people who, as far as you can reason, are in exactly the same awkward position as yourself. Some are devoted blindly to activity and distraction, some are on a path of willful self-destruction, some profit at the expense of others and still others seem completely unaware of or indifferent to the mysteries of their own existence.
Amidst all this madness, you know you have a body, but you don’t know how or where it came from, and your only guarantee is that someday you will have to lay it aside, at best temporarily and at worst eternally. You’ve been born onto a giant rock hurtling through space at thousands upon thousands of miles per hour, and the Sun that enables your life is only able to do so for a limited amount of time. Your inescapable conclusion appears to be that life on Earth has never been, nor ever will be, permanent, and that whether via supernova or rapture, the end of the world is religio-scientific reality.
This odd predicament describes exactly what happened the day each and every one of us was born, and from it arise humanity's foundational questions of life: Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Is there a reason why we're here? Don’t you feel compelled to search for answers? Or are you content to simply absorb into activities and distractions, and forget about the questions altogether? Although many satisfy for distraction as opposed to seeking experience or knowledge, our modern age stands unparalleled to any other in its abundance of technology and information at our disposal to express our hearts and minds, whether full of virtue or vice.
From our youngest days humans desire answers to these questions, as evidenced by the natural curiosity of kindergarteners that reigns unchecked until socialization and adulthood stamp it out. Unfortunately, charlatans abound, and against the current atmosphere of war, deception, religio-political agenda, greed and scandal, certainly any appeal to truth inevitably seems like just another voice of the impersonal machine that seeks to mechanize humanity. We’ve got television, authority, school, parents, newspapers, preachers, extremists, public relations liars, scientists, police and politicians all telling us how it is, what to do, or what not to do, each with a different and often conflicting agenda, yet similar at the root: believe our version. This only complicates the innate human longing for knowledge.
Our consumer-based society conditions us to blindly accept, and its constant barrage of advertisements serves to disconnect our mental faculties and excite our senses. Indeed, people will often believe whatever they are told so long as they have no earnest convictions or ideas of their own, and the truth of a matter often becomes irrelevant so long as adherence to it sustains complacency. In this regard one might study the impact of despots under trying times, for example the effects of Nazi propaganda on pre-war Germany. Persuasion and repetition effect belief, and this process is much easier when the emotional balance of the subject is upset.
Much mention is made today of the search for God, and people everywhere wish to know how to find God. There are many salesmen of truth out there, and much mention is made of the bible or this other teaching or that. It was, and still is, this author’s firm belief that if God really did inspire the Bible, then each of us are personally obligated to investigate it for ourselves. This concept of ‘spiritual self-sufficiency’ serves an important purpose but is also a very dangerous proposition when misunderstood.
When we are even somewhat literate in basic precepts, we can question everything presented to us by any alleged authority on any subject. Knowledge leads to discernment. Literacy and freedom are gifts, and to fail in their implementation invites deception, slavery and dependence. This author’s current stance is that man cannot find God and that God must initiate the matter if it is to occur at all. For the same reason we can’t prove anything about God, it is dangerous to rely on proclamations of others. It is precisely this misguided search that has led ancient man to worship golden calves, and modern man to worship gold.
Using analysis and thought, the thinking person can examine the laws and values presented by peers and society. The art of questioning must replace the more common fallacy of blind acceptance, which is mostly subconscious and communal in contrast to the intellectual approach characterized by the application of arduous, independent, conscious effort in the direction of knowledge. Why else would science reward empirical reasoning, and why else would Jesus admonish to, “…seek and ye shall find,” unless discovery and the apprehension of truth required effort? It can be beneficial to encourage trains of thought that are conspicuous by their absence, and to offer interpretations of the human summary that evade the mainstream intellectual marketplace.
That people blindly conform to anything is the height of danger in a so-called civilized society or democracy, and the magnitude of that error becomes more readily apparent and perhaps most lethal when applied to science, politics or religion. Psychologists attest to the fact that a mind prone to anger when confronted with information threatening to existing world views is likely a mind not fully convinced of those world views, so should you find yourself getting angry or offended at any point in reading, it is possible there may be some insecurity in your belief system. Root it out with knowledge. Please don’t dismiss anything this author says just because it appears to conflict with your preconceptions. Condemnation without investigation is a bar to all knowledge.
Though we may believe in certain foundational truths we must never close our minds to the possibility that we may be wrong. Often a different perspective yields a different perception, or as the great Sherlock Holmes put it, "[C]ircumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing… It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different… There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
One final point need be made clear: In no way do I presume to have the truth, but I seek to share its pursuit in every way. The goal is not for the reader to dogmatically conform, but to provide a platform for further exploration, and each reader is encouraged to investigate each and every issue discussed for themselves. The conclusions result from deep thought and draw from earnest studies in a wide variety of topics, observations of human nature in general, and a diverse range of personal experiences, while being a normal human living a normal life on Earth, watching and observing all that unfolds, trying to make sense of it all somehow.
Since there is no surer path to mania, you might find lighter posts
about art, pop culture, photography and skateboarding to be a welcomed
relief.
These articles are indebted to an ever-growing host of brilliant scientists, researchers, philosophers, theologians and writers, all of whom have paved the roads we travel.
