You either know what you are doing --  or you do not,
and in the world of ideas, ordinary minds do not –
--  and do not acknowledge they do not.

With physical skills, you clearly possess them, 
or you do not: 
you can either walk a tightrope, fly a plane, 
perform surgery, or you cannot,
and no sane mind deludes itself thereabout,
but in the intangible world of symbols
the mind normally makes no such clear cut distinction.

Several features does the mind of man limn 
to distinguish him from other earthly creatures;
most relating to his alteration of the physical environment to more efficiently suit his needs, and desires, 
(a capacity totally dependent on his ability to 
manipulate symbols in his brain which he can later apply
to material conditions),
but the feature that his mind finds most captivating about itself IS simply its ability to play with symbols.
(A prisoner in solitary confinement will trade away his meal to whoever delivered it in exchange for 
a scrap of conversation;
the worst punishment known to man is the deprivation
of symbolic stimuli, which indeed can 
ultimately do as much damage to his nervous system 
as lack of food will to his digestive one.)

When you consider the amount of technology, 
(things that do not naturally grow from the ground), 
with which your life is surrounded,
the importance of the mind’s symbolic manipulations 
put into tangible practice is obvious,
and when you look at the large part that 
culture plays in men’s lives, 
you are also seeing symbol-weaving at work, 
but in this instance  --  NOT so obviously.

Everyone realizes that without the proper 
physical training, 
(with, or without collateral symbolic instruction),
an athlete cannot competently compete,
and everyone understands that without the proper education in appropriate symbolic subjects, 
a scientist cannot plot the desired trajectory of a spacecraft,
but once past areas wherein are visible, 
tangible consequences of symbolic activities --
--  everything is up for grabs;
minds can believe they see anything they want to see
in circumstances wherein all that is going on is
symbols frolicking with other symbols.

                                     "I know where Oz is."
                                     "Are you sure?"
                                "I am positive."
 
 
 

You either know what you are doing, or you do not,
and in the world of ideas & symbols, 
ordinary minds do not face up to the fact that 
not only do they not know what they are doing --  but
neither can they ever know,
for in no ground-based sense 
are they actually doing anything. 

In the realm of ideas, 
knowing-what-you-are-doing
would seem of paramount importance -- 
thus the importance placed on education.
A man cannot speak authoritatively on history,
art, politics, or religion without a thorough 
training-in, and knowledge-of the subject --
ergo the importance placed on academic credentials --  and their passionate defense by those holding them.
In the realm of symbols --  no one knows, 
or can know what they are doing, 
hence the importance of having a 
physical piece of paper that says you do,
and hence also, 
men’s snippiness when accused of not knowing.

If you in truth do not know the location of Oz
then produce a certificate that says you do,
and snarl aggressively at any suggestion otherwise:
that is all a human can do,
and that is all that ordinary humans feel the need to do.
(When you’re playing fairy football,
running over an elf is just as good as 
creaming Bubba Smith.
 

In this mortal play life is staging on earth,
each person’s role is written so that their character
acts as though he does not realize that he is simply playing a part,
and pretends not to distinguish a difference between the physical activity taking place on the boards,
and his dialogue  -- 
--  a presumed manifestation of his thinking.
The role written for each man’s mind 
never includes the character becoming interested 
in knowing the source of his script.

You either know what you are doing, or you do not,
but as long as you play out your assigned role, 
there is no need to know –
and yet each person’s character is made to pretend that knowing does matter, and that they do. 

                               “I know where Oz is.”
                                    “Are you sure?”
                               ”I'm positive.”
 
 
 
 

In the ordinary world of ideas, no one knows what they are doing, and not one out of every million men who ever walk this planet ever realize this;
for one reason, described as just t’was in symbols --
--  it is not true;
based on the currency-of-ideas commonly available to 
the mind  --   it cannot be so.
Ordinary men's minds do what they do;
they think what they think, and say what they say,
and integral to their existence is that characteristic of 
the role they play 
that makes them say 
that they do indeed  -- 
--  know-what-they-are-mentally-doing,
(this is how it is with them).
But in the rarified & privileged realm in which 
the one man in a million roams,
he neither thinks that his mind knows what it is doing,
nor does he think that it does not know what  it is doing.
He simply is wise to what is going on. 
 
 

While it is not literally possible to remove yourself entirely from the drama being played on the physical stage-of-life,
he who in his own way comprehends the above
can take his personal focus away from this 
pleasing little farce once he has seen 
each of the major acts once already, 
and perceives generally where the plot is headed.
 

Simply put: Men who say that they know what they are doing mentally  --  do not,
for it reveals that they do not understand 
what is going on in the mental world.

One man in a million does come to realize 
the true nature of mental reality,
and he neither knows what he is doing, 
nor does he not know. 

Things are then just the way they should be  --
…..............(seeing as how that is how they are.)
 

                                          J
 
 

                                     "I know where Oz is."
                                         "Are you sure?"
                                     "I'm positive."
                                         "The more I think about what you say,
                                           the less certain I am that I like it."
                                     "You're making progress."