All things must change to something new, to something strange.
Longfellow
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Strange: outside of one's previous experience; hitherto unknown.
(Webster)
"Impossible be strange attempts to those that weight their pains in sense."
(Shakespeare.)
He: If God had meant us to fly He would have given us wings.
She: Didn't give us wheels neither.
(From "Foxfire" by Hume Cronin)
I think if some people had their way we would still be living in caves. Why is it that a new idea, a new way of doing things or a new way of looking at things is so frightening to people? Some folks absolutely cannot deal with a vision, a visionary individual, an "I have a dream" person. Afraid of losing what they have, as unsatisfactory as it is, they will not take the chance to rise above it if it involves risk. Blind to the possibilities of a new idea they will put it on the shelf and not use it.
Before there was rock music there was the electric guitar. People said it was a curiosity but would never replace a regular guitar. Then one fell into the hands of Jimi Hendrix and others like him. The world of music changed.
A bunch of guys in Philadelphia decided to establish a brand new nation of independence and individual freedoms. A bunch of other guys said it wouldn't work and they should stick with the British no matter how miserable they were.
Better to stay on this side of the river if it means taking the risk of building a bridge.
"It won't work." That's the statement you hear all the time for things that haven't been tried. "You'll never get that thing off the ground, Orville."
And then they will put as many obstacles in the way as they can to prove that it won't work. And they will keep doing that until it works.
Now we have a bunch of guys with vision, with dreams of a "new world order" that fits who we are and the new century that we're living in. And what do we hear? "It won't work." In other words "Let's stay here in the cave. We may lack a lot of things that would make life better but here at least it's familiar."
Human life means progress and progress takes vision, persistence, adaptatilon and courage.
"Forget it Henry. It'll never replace the horse and buggy."
DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND PUZZLE
You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, sworn to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.
Which door do you choose? Why?
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB
3 comments:
I like your image of building a bridge and how afraid so many people are of doing so. I think that fear is at the heart of most of our worst qualities--the desire for vengeance, discrimination of any sort, selfishness, and a general distrust of anyone not like us. However, I can't help but think that in spite of our baser selves, humankind has also created great beauty in art, music, and literature. I think that we are capable of so much more than the limits we place on ourselves via our fears.
Are you familiar with Plato's Allegory of the Cave? Your post made me think of it; I think that you would find it of interest.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/plato.html
I was so taken with your post that I forgot to address your puzzler.
Raging fire is a bad thing regardless of whether one is drenched in water or gasoline so I think that I would skip door 2. However, the bucket of water or gasoline sits outside the door and I see nothing that would prevent me from making use of its contents. You also don't say that I can't open more than one door, only that I may not close a door once its opened. I would take the bucket, open door #1 and douse the tigers with whatever the bucket contains, distracting them long enoug for me to move to door #3 and also open it. I'd hide behind the open door #3 and wait for the freed tigers to enter the room with the blindfolded assasins who would be unable to ascertain my presence in all of the confusion and while the action was in room 3,I'd exit through room #1. Of course, I am proposing a solution that attempts to circumvent the rules of your scenario.
If I had to make one choice, it would be door #3. The tigers and fire are forces of nature and I don't think that wit or intelligence are any match for the forces of nature. On the other hand, the assasins are handicapped by their blindfolds and vulnearble to confusion and misdirection which might provide an opportunity for escape.
Of course, normally I never go down a path for which I don't alrady have an exit plan.
People can be as stubborn and tenacious as they want, but the world does progress in spite of them. I think back in my life to incidents where I was hiding in my cave as well, but eventually I ventured out and embraced new thoughts or technology. Amazing feats have happened over the centuries and I am pleased that those visionaries did not take "it wont' work" for an answer.
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