Adam Blatner

Not only are my writings ambiguous, but they also become complex. This means that I’m aware that there may be seeming inconsistencies that make what I write confusing.

It is confusing at a lower level that cannot understand paradox. Some people perceive this as elitist. Many people can not think this way. Since the human mind reinforces its own viewpoint, such people cannot do any better than to rationalize their limitedness and jealousy of the more articulate. My theory is that these folks not only unconsciously want it packaged, but they believe it should and could be packaged to be unambiguous. To them making it simple is a matter of will—it’s voluntary. So many things have indeed been simplified! (But this screens out the vast number of ideas that cannot be simplified.) This is a profound error.

But this is a democracy, and so many people feel entitled to having it packaged so that it’s easily digestible. The unconscious mind seizes on the many things where this has been done and ignores the many, many other things where simplification is truly impossible. Being unable  to imagine that it’s more complicated than they can easily understand, they feel put upon, as if those who “know” are perversely making it seem complex out of a mean feeling of elitism. The idea that it is really, truly complex is unbelievable.

This applies to parts of us, too—parts of us that prefer rude hand gestures and five word sentences full of expletives that express nothing but projections that those more subtle or intelligent are “just putting on airs,” just being “snotty,” or “showing off.” (This is one of the down-sides of the virtue of democracy, which, as Winston Churchill pointed out, is only the least likely to be distorted by power-grabbers. Actually, what he said was that “Democracy is the worst form of government— except for anything else!”)

Simplicity, then, becomes what seems to be a virtue, but it’s really a demand that everything and everyone be “dumbed-down” to the lowest common denominator. This makes democracy vulnerable to petty distortions of rhetoric, because most people don’t know any better.

There are others, and in truth, parts of us, that don’t want to take the time to understand, and really don’t see the reason why it’s necessary. These are the same people who find it impossible to understand any explanations other than malice. So they feel entitled to shout, “Get out if you don’t like it!”

On the other hand, others who value depth and thoughtfulness are seen as exclu-sive–ist: “You think you’re so damn smart!” “Yeah, she thinks she’s better than us!” So, as the king of Siam says (in the mid-1950s Broadway play, Anna and the King) “Is a predicament.”

In summary, the truth is in part so complicated that it cannot be grasped by people at even extra-ordinary levels of consciousness. Consider, though, that truth is multi-leveled and we are only in the middle.