"In Praise Of Thinking"

There are posts I can’t write.

I want to.  But they are my beyond my ability to artfully articulate.

I wanted to offer a debate between a truth teller and a liar.

Couldn’t even get started. 

To pull that off, I would have to be able to think like a liar and that is not in my repertoire.  (It may occasionally visit, but holds no permanent residence.)

It seems we live in a time where lying and truth-telling are seen as legitimate options. 

I was going to say “equally legitimate options” but lying is not legitimate.

Is it?

Not “Do I look fat in this dress?” – “No honey, you look great.”

I mean, knee-jerk, wall-to-wall prevarication.

Lying or not lying – a matter of preference?

“Decent and indecent”?

“Caring and uncaring”?

Just “You pick it, man”?

“Whatever helps you to win”?

This is starting to sound preachy.  Which is one reason I can’t write about it, even though I would like to.  I am too crazed to be skillful.

Instead, I offer a speech I have mentioned before from Inherit the Wind (by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.)  You might recall that I performed this speech, auditioning at the Bertolt Brecht Summer Theater Workshop at UCLA, to noteworthy acclaim.  (Sorry, I just like throwing that in.)

This climactic sequence ensues during the trial of Bertram Cates, a high school science teacher who taught “evolution” in a state where teaching theories contrary to the literal understanding of the bible are legally forbidden.  

In this, “Based On Actual Events ‘Monkey Trial’”, similar to the above-mentioned “alternatives”, the idea of ”thinking” is pitted against (in this case, culturally mandated) not thinking.

The setup to this sequence involves witness, Matthew Harrison Brady, an acknowledged “Expert on the bible” – as well as the trial’s prosecuting attorney – asking defense attorney Henry Drummond,

“Is it possible that something is holy to the celebrated agnostic!”

To which the impassioned Drummond replies,

“Yes!  The individual human mind.  In a child’s power to master the multiplication table there is more sanctity than in all your shouted “Amens!”, “Holy, Holies!” and “Hosannas!”  

An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral.  And the advance of men’s knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes, or the parting of the waters!  But are we now to halt the march of progress because Mr. Brady frightens us with a fable!

(Turning to the jury, reasonably)  Gentlemen, progress has never been a bargain.  You’ve got to pay for it.  Sometimes I think there’s a man behind a counter who says,

‘All right, you can have a telephone; but you’ll have to give up privacy, the charm of distance.’

‘Madam, you may vote; but at a price; you lose the right to retreat behind a powder- puff or a petticoat.’

‘Mr., you may conquer the air; but the birds will lose their wonder, and the clouds will smell of gasoline!’

Darwin moved us forward to a hilltop, where we could look back and see the way from which we came.  But for this view, this insight, this knowledge, we must abandon our faith in the pleasant poetry of Genesis.”

The scene builds to a crescendo after some fancy maneuvering, with Drummond asking Brady if a man deserves the same privilege as a sponge.  Receiving a positive response, Drummond, going in for the kill, proclaims,

“(Re: Cates) This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge.  He wishes to think!”

They wrote it; I didn’t.

But I am passing it along.

Right and wrong are not alternatives

They are diametrical opposites.

One right.

And one wrong.