Drifting into the arena of the unwell.
Withnail & I
- Marwood:
- Shup up will you, you're giving me the fear! Give us a downer Danny, I've gone and fucked my brain.
- Danny:
- Sit down man, take control. You have a rush. It will pass.
- Marwood:
- Aren't you getting absurdly high?
- Danny:
- Precisely the reason I'm smoking it.
- Withnail:
- I couldn't I'm spaced.
- Danny:
- Not as spaced as you rodents.
- Marwood:
- Don't talk about them.
- Danny:
- I expect they're talking to each other.
- Marwood:
- Talking to each other? What do you mean?
- Danny:
- I've dealt with them. Given 'em all drugged onion.
- Marwood:
- Why've you drugged their onions!?
- Danny:
- Sit down man, find your neutral space. You have done something to your brain. You have made it high. If I lay 10 mills of diazipan on you, you will do something else to your brain, you will make it low. Why trust one drug rather than the other. That politics ain't it.
- Marwood:
- I'm going to eat some sugar.
- Danny:
- I recommend you smoke some more grass.
- Marwood:
- No way, no fucking way.
- Danny:
- That is an unfortunate political decission.
- Withnail:
- What are you talking about Danny?
- Danny:
- If you are holding onto a rising balloon you are presented with a difficult political decission - let go while you've still got the chance or hold onto the rope and continue getting higher. That's politics man. We are at the end of an age. The greatest decade in the history of mankind is nearly over. They're selling hippy wigs in wolworths. It is 91 days to the end of the decade and as presuming ed here has so consistently pointed out, we have failed to paint it black.
Fnord!
We all want Answers. We all want To Know. But we want somebody else to do all the work for us. To tell us How. Or Why. But there are somethings we can only do for ourselves. Yet anyone coming along and offering us a truth, a method, is hailed. And lauded. And we stop thinking and we lap-up what we are fed.
Take Personality profiling. It has fascinated me for years. A science of the mind. A way to see myself: to understand. Now the BBC is feeding it to us in bite-sized chunks... on prime time TV. There is even a test you can do online.
The experts sit there and predict what will happen - telling us what the lab-rats will do. We applaud when they perform, and blame in-exact science when they don't. Convincing ourselves that there is a scientific reason for being wrong. Which makes it more right. More astounding. That here is truth. And there's more... Our personalities are set before we're born. So now we can blame genetics for our failings. As we wonder if genetic engineering can make us more spontaneous.
Well, go, on, take the test. Only answer at random. Don't even read the words on the screen. Do it as fast as you can. Don't concentrate... There's a fine chance the answers you see are answers you'll accept. But how can that be if you answered at random? As with religion, faith makes us believe. The only thing this test taught me, was I'm introverted. Duh... like I need some dumb test to tell me that. It's not science, it's smoke and mirrors: a con. Finally - it took me all last night - finally I proved that in this instance it's nothing but masturbation for the mind. Before that I believed! Truly, I believed!
I believe there are no absolutes. So nothing I say is really true. Or indeed really false. There are some answers you can only workout for yourself. And when all things are considered, perhaps it's the journey, not the destination which is important. But don't take my word for it. Don't ask others to give you the answer. Discover it for yourself.