Perennial Wisdom.
The value of an opinion depends on the extent to which a person has striven to become informed before forming an opinion – and that is an ever evolving process. The problem is that most of the world are constantly forming opinions based on hearsay and a little personal reflection, then proceed to overestimate their ignorance. I would rather value the man who says, ‘I don’t know’, and gives his soul to finding out – and the very few men who have come back with a treasure. The others only indulge in their own vanity. The idea spread the world over that ‘your truth is different to mine’ is the result of a postmodern disease that started as academic theory but has now captured civilizations – and they don’t even realize where that idea began or how they have become victim to it. That is the extent of their ignorance, but you hardly meet a man who says he doesn’t know.
Do not fear what you do not know.
Your truth is not different to mine. This is why art exists – to remind the world how intimately connected we all are. Our loneliness connects us, our longing, our numbness, our fury… our serenity… until we begin to realize that we don’t recognize each other for sharing the same feelings; we recognize that we are dipping into the same timeless void. Our differences are insignificant, our differences exist to urge acceptance in our hearts. Our differences exist to urge us to be free, to transcend our fear reaction.
This is why Aristotle said, “When the storytelling in a culture goes bad the result is decadence.” When we get so strung up on relativity that we forget the perennial wisdom that seems to pop out of nowhere to anyone who is listening – and that wisdom has always been the same. It need not be passed from ear to ear. We can meet from opposite sides of the Universe and yet recognize each other – when we are listening.
It is this oneness that redeems us, it is what makes everything possible, even after your heart has been crushed hard black. If there is still a way out of that, it is because of the perennial wisdom that existed before and after time.
The Revolution is Within 