((My comments in double parentheses - Homer))
 
                       THE WIND BETWEEN THE EARS
 
                                ACT - 89
                             14 August 1995
 
                 Copyright (C) 1995 Homer Wilson Smith
       Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.
 
 
     You can not start a philosophy with the axiom
 
     That all axioms are necessarily false,
 
     That all statements of truth are false,
 
     That it is true there are no truths,
 
     That all generalizations are false,
 
     That there are no absolutes,
 
     That it is provable that nothing is provable,
 
     That perfect certainty is perfectly and certainly impossible.
 
     That you doubt that you doubt.
 
     That you don't know if you don't know.
 
     That the logic of "is" and "is not" *IS* illogical,
 
     That is is isn't and isn't is is,
 
     That isn't is not isn't, and is is not is,
 
     That the word 'is' *IS* meaningless and conveys nothing,
 
     That the word 'is' *IS* the same thing as "is not",
 
     That something can both be and not be at the same time, or doesn't
have to be or not be if it doesn't want to,
 
     That ALL truths DEFINITELY lie on a gradient scale of truth value,
including this one,
 
     or
 
     That ALL beliefs are arbitrarily chosen to suit one's mood,
including this one."
 
     You can always know such a person, they will read the above and say
"Yeah your are right!"
 
     When you finally corner someone on these matters they will first
try to evade you by saying "Homer you are just trying to trap me in your
silly word games and illogic."
 
     When you press them further on it they will finally say "Homer you
are quite right, my position is wholly untenable, but I choose to live
by it anyhow."
 
     This is the last ditch effort of a service facsimile to be right
inspite of certain evidence to the contrary.  They choose to believe as
an arbitrary act of whim and caprice and no longer because of the truth
value of what they believe.
 
     These are minds that do not work.
 
     They look without seeing, or without incorporating what they see
into what they believe.
 
     The only "truths" these minds can wrap their wits around are self
denying "truths".
 
     These sum up to "I don't know if I am", or worse "I know I am not."
 
     These are people who do not know FOR SURE if anything exists
including themselves, they doubt that they doubt, they wonder if they
wonder, they question if they question.
 
     They doubt ALL certainties BY POLICY, not because they have
observed with certainty that perfect certainties do not exist.

     If you ask them if they are certain their policy is correct, they
will say no, they are uncertain that they are uncertain of everything,
which is as consistent as it is nuts, and that the self consistency of
their POLICY adds to its validity.
 
     In other words there is no continuity director home in the brain to
verify the statements being issued by the tongue.
 
     They say "Maybe I don't exist, how would I know?"
 
     You could suggest that a nothing could not wonder if it were a
nothing or a something, but your efforts would be futile.
 
     Someone at this level is no longer interested in knowing the truth,
they are interested only in 'being right'.

     And the best way to be safely right on everything is to claim
"There is no right."
 
     No matter how high these people are, no matter how many certs they
have on the wall, they are quite dead in the head, their needle floats
only because it is waving in the wind that passes between their ears.

     And they are living danger itself to life and those around them who
know they exist, hurt, and who know that they know, and who know that
they don't know.
 
     IT ISN'T POSSIBLE TO BE UNCERTAIN IF YOU ARE UNCERTAIN, TO DOUBT
THAT YOU DOUBT, OR TO NOT KNOW IF YOU NOT KNOW.

     Thus uncertainty, doubt, and not knowing are all THEMSELVES perfect
certainties, and the awake mind that can deal with perfect certainties
and know them for what they are, can know this.
 
     Perfect certainty of doubt is the beginning of personal integrity
even if you have no doubts.

     To doubt this is to prove it.

     Homer