Five Blind Men and the Elephant

A Table of Values hangs above every people - it makes them who and what they are...

Our problem (those of us who live in modern society under the yoke of the Corporate Capitalist System) is that instead of a Table of Values we have a big TV screen that is constantly blarring commercial messages at us 24/7. The film "They Live" nicely sums it up. But, then again, the "Matrix Trilogy" gives us a glimpse of the idea that our sole purpose in a Consumer Society is to be just another "Flashlight Battery" for the powers-that-be...

Are these conflicting perceptions? Consider the following folk tale:

The Blind Men and the Elephant (retold by Robin Wood 1999)

Once upon a time, five blind men came upon an elephant.

"What is this?!" asked the first one, who had run headlong into its side.

"It's an Elephant." said the elephant's keeper, who was sitting on a stool, cleaning the elephant's harness.

"Wow! So this is an Elephant! I've always wondered what Elephants are like!" said the man, running his hands as far as he could reach up and down the elephant's side. "Why, it's just like a wall! A large, warm wall!"

"What do you mean, a wall?" said the second man, wrapping his arms around the elephant's leg. "This is nothing like a wall. You can't reach around a wall! This is more like a pillar. Yeah, that's it! An Elephant is exactly like a pillar!"

"A pillar? Strange kind of pillar!" said the third man, stroking the elephant's trunk. "It's too thin, for one thing, and it's too flexible for another. If you think this is a pillar, I don't want to go to your house! This is more like a snake. See, it's wrapping around my arm! An Elephant is just like a snake!"

"Snakes don't have hair!" said the fourth man in disgust, pulling the elephant's tail. "You are closer than the others, but I'm surprised that you missed the hair. This isn't a snake, it's a rope. Elephants are exactly like ropes."

"I don't know what you guys are on!" the fifth man cried, waving the elephant's ear back and forth. "It's as large as a wall, all right, but thin as a leaf, and no more flexible than any piece of cloth this size should be. I don't know what's wrong with all of you, but no one except a complete idiot could mistake an Elephant for anything except a sail!!!"

And as the elephant stepped aside, they tramped off down the road, arguing more loudly and violently as they went, each sure that he, and he alone, was right; and all the others were wrong.

The Elephant keeper sighed, and went back to polishing the harness, while the elephant winked solemnly at him.
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We are like the blind men, each only having a small piece of the puzzle, each right but also wrong. The problem is focus and coordination. We need to focus on our own needs, and to coordinate our efforts in order to achieve them. Theorizing about the "Nature of the Enemy" is all well and good as a hobby for those who have little or nothing on their minds. But, we have needs that must be met. And, in order to meet them we need to prioritize and set goals that are achievable.

The Prime Directive is SURVIVAL!