May 1, 2002                                                                              © 2002: JAN COX
 
 
 

   “Sir, will you please tell this committee exactly what is to be accomplished by
   telling pea brains that they are pea brains?”
“Humm, that’s a tough one senator, humm........no it’s not --  I’s just jerkin’ you around:
nothin’, you’d think  --  I mean if they’re pea brains to begin with
what is tellin’ ‘em anything gonna accomplish?!

But there are a few people among the billions out there in this big old wide world
who have a strange urge that neither the state, the church, the university,
nor any cultural activity meets;
it is they who are secret exceptions to all the apparently rational norms
applicable to ordinary men, such as the one about which you now query moi.”

   “Sir, I am not sure that I and this committee understand what you are talking about.”
“I know you are not senator, and that is why you are the proper representative
of ordinary people,
but if you really are interested, I will tell you a bit about this unregistered fringe group who are not the constituency of any human institution."
   “What is it that they want?”
“I was trusting that you would ask that: they want to    --    FaceTheFacts.”
   “But that is what all men want; that is the very reason for this committee's existence:
   to dig out the facts of a matter so that everyone can then, face-the-facts;
   be able to intelligently deal with them, and move on to the next problem.”
“Yes senator, I know that is yours and the common view of things,
but ordinary people are not wanting to FaceTheFacts in the same manner as the few
I earlier noted.
I understand fully that you and those you represent are not being consciously duplicitous when you say that you too want to face-the-facts of all matters & situations which seem as problems to the common good of man,
but the facts involved in these problems are not even of the same species as
the facts the few furiously try to ferret out,
and without benefit of a well funded and staffed committee such as yours,
I might add, senator.
Their investigation is strictly a solo, jerry rigged operation, (when run right).”

  “So sir --  what exactly are these extraordinary facts these few seek
which other people do not?”
“Ah, that I cannot tell you senator  --  they do not even know themselves --
but there are striking distinctions between the interests that motivate the ordinary's searching for, the-facts, and what drives the few.

Routine people want the facts of a particular situation --  so they can understand it --  which should lead to them being able to then manipulate and change it;
the few want the facts to everything.

They begin by wanting the facts to specific activities in themselves and in their lives, but eventually burst from that, (when they have run it right),
and want nothing less than the facts about everything,
which is an entirely different thing than wanting the facts of a particular matter --
but the distinction is even deeper.

The facts in the two instances are not of the same nature;
all ordinary men know what facts are, in the normal, rational sense of the term,
but the facts about everything are not the same type of facts that exist about
a specific situation.”
   “Sir, this is all quite confusing.”
“I know senator --  I understand full well why you say that,
but if you are still curious, there is one more blunt feature to these few’s desire to FaceTheFacts which I say to you is completely distinct from what ordinary people mean by the term.
 
 

When routine men believe they have faced-the-facts of a particular matter
the first thing they do is announce it to themselves and to others;
when the few FaceTheFacts I refer to,
the first thing they do is not mention it.

After ordinary men have faced-the-facts of some situation that was troubling to them  --  they immediately want to talk about it;
to describe in great detail their finding with others,
almost as a kind of reassurance of the validity of the facts-they-have-faced,
while the experience of the few, when they finally do FaceTheFacts they are after –  leaves them with no interest whatsoever in saying anything about it or what they find.

What the ordinary conceive-of and call, facing-the-facts of a given matter,
always provokes them to talk about it, perhaps for the rest of their life –
it was so exciting! --  and revealing!
They want to describe to others how they were long confused by the situation,
and simply could not fathom why circumstances seemed arranged to their detriment,  whether they be conditions external to them,
or psychological ones in them.
Men believe they spend a good portion of their entire lives trying to uncover, then,
face-the-facts of  --  why they are like they are;
why other people treat them as they do;
why life is just generally unfair,
and when a person feels they have come up with facts of a given situation
that has been bothering them and about which they have been mulling –
they want to declare their discovery with someone! --
well, obviously, first with their self  --   but then immediately with friends, if possible –
with strangers, if necessary.
Nothing could be more natural to an ordinary man,
yet nothing more literally unthinkable to a man who has FacedTheFacts I refer to
in conjunction with the few.

When a man  --  who wants to  --  and has been working to  –  FaceTheFacts
is finally able to,
the thought of telling someone else about it never occurs to him --
he literally never thinks about doing so.
 

Among the few of the few made aware of this,
it can be a kind of touchstone as to whether or not you have really yet,
FacedTheFacts --  the BIG facts,
that is: whether or not you still have any desire to tell anyone about the latest, facts-you-have-found-and-faced.

See senator, when a normal, sane man feels he has finally been able to,
face-the-facts of a specific matter, situation, or problem --
there is something he can say about what he saw and faced,
but when one of these loners, living beyond the range of your constituency radar, FacesTheFacts  --  not of a situation, but of everything  --
there is literally nothing to say about it.
Such a person does not willfully refrain from talking about TheFactsTheyFaced –
there is simply  --   literally nothing they can say.       So: there is a cartoon litmus test:
if you have any urge at all to talk about the facts-you-faced,
they were not the, FaceTheFacts that the few are really after.

If a man finally stumbles on them  --  they leave him instinctively speechless;
there is, after that, nothing serious to talk about   --  ever again.”

   “Sir, your dealing with this matter with such familiarity makes me want to ask you
   why you are here talking about it now before this committee?”
“Senator: I had already eaten; my girl friend is out of town and it is too cold to go run, so I had nothing better to do.”