Song lyrics, short stories, memes and even adages contain such wisdom that it could be considered astonishing.
This thought started banging around my brain as I was listening to my favorite album, (Rush’s “A Farewell to Kings”). The title track is an all-too-real example of the world, and particularly our country, and the shape of society. Given that the album was released in 1977, it could be considered prophetic.
A snippet: “We turned our gaze from the castles in the distance, eyes cast down on the path of least resistance."
A more meaningful one: “Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise beating down the multitudes and scoffing at the wise.”
So I cobbled together a bunch of these phrases that I found to be provocative and meaningful, and I’m sharing them because I believe wisdom belongs to everyone.
•“If you disagree with me politically, you probably disagree with me biblically.” I find that many arguments used to justify government overreach are from someone’s interpretation of a Bible verse. It becomes extremely evident that the people using those are really not believers.
•”The more you learn, the more you see.” Many arguments I find are rooted in ignorance, which causes fear, which causes hate, and anyone who has seen Yoda give that speech to Luke about the dark side of The Force should understand that all hate is rooted in fear.
•My favorite author, Harlan Ellison, said “You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are entitled to your own informed opinion. No one has the right to be ignorant.” Get all the facts, then proceed with your debate.
•”That's all it took to see I was wastin' time; that's all it took to see I was walkin' the line.” That line from “The Lemming Polka” by k.d. lang points out that just following along with the current wave will probably have you falling off a cliff. You remember the question every parent ever asked about your friends jumping off a bridge. It may not have seemed that way at the time, but they were trying to get you to think on your own.
•”Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Try finding any fault with Benjamin Franklin’s quote. We will die, and we all pay taxes. The questions becomes “If we have paid more and more in taxes, have our lives really improved?”
•My favorite cartoon from the ‘80s, “Bloom County,” coined a term in a panel whereby everybody waiting on a park bench began ramping up indignation over, well, pretty much any and everything: Offensensitivity. Yes, life can be offensive. It’s not right to be jerks just because you’re offended; there’s better remedies (see above about learning).
•A quote from Hawkeye Pierce from the TV show “M*A*S*H” that always stuck with me is “If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs then you probably haven’t checked with your answering service.” He was talking about a missing jeep, but that advice can equally mean the tendency for people to get their dander up without having all the facts.
•Here’s a quote from Robert Matthew Van Winkle — many of you know him as Vanilla Ice — that is apropos for all of these situations, and many more, and is the pinnacle of wisdom found in an unexpected area: “Stop. Collaborate, and listen.”
Words to live by.
Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
