WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IS A LIE?

"What if everything you believe is a lie?" - I found that question posed to the public on a site. I think it was meant to freak people out or get them to think as the person who asked the question would like them to, assuming the way s/he thinks is The Truth.

A long time ago I stated that I take no unilateral, absolute positions on any issue. I have no social or emotional need to adopt a position and cling to it at all cost in order to fit into a social group.

That, I believe, is why most people cling tenaciously to their opinions - fear of isolation. Most people hinge the satisfaction of their innate gregarious natures upon the adoption of a value system. They are willing to sacrifice their independence of thought and position-taking for the sake of acceptance. I will not make this sacrifice. I never did.

I have been accused of being "schizo" by people who hold desperately to one given way of thinking or another due to the fact that my way of thinking is eclectic, syncretistic and, above all, tentative at any given time, always subject to change when confronted by reasoning that seems more comprehensive or otherwise superior.

Some understand that that it is positive, the mark of a truly open mind, rather than a sign of pathology.

I (tentatively :0) think the following quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is brilliant: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. "

As my mother used to quote Shakespeare saying: "This above all,--to thine own self be true;", the remainder of the quote being: "and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)

Loyalty, whether it be to ideas, ideals or to persons is a very great value and virtue, but, IMO, allowing oneself to grow and evolve toward more comprehensive understanding, which allows us to love on a higher level, is greater and often that involves the moving on and away from that which and whom we cherished.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com