The Search for Clarity
Darth Vader and chicken have something in common
Darth Vader was such a great character in the original Star Wars. Faceless, breathless, pure evil. But then they went and ruined it by making him Luke Skywalker’s father. Suddenly his allure of evilness evaporated like fairy dust. He now had a history, a story, a personality. Why did they do it? He was so much more enjoyable when he wasn’t complicated. Needless to say, Hitler remains firmly on top of the evilness pile – we can hate him without complication. His evilness is clear.
Similarly, I went our for dinner last night and ordered chicken. As it happens I don’t eat much chicken as I feel sorry for the poor little buggers all cooped up. However, on my first bite I remembered that it’s not just chicken welfare that bothers me, it’s the blandness of the taste. Lets face it, chicken is the potato of the meat world. A base for real flavours. While some may see neutrality as a strength, I find it muddled. Where is the certainty of flavour, where is the clarity?
I could go on. Mixing whiskey with water just seems to be muddying the waters and drinking a mochaccino is like driving with one eye closed. And don’t even get me started on sleeveless vests and sport utility vehicles (SUV’s).
The thing I most liked about the band Queen (apart from Freddie’s outrageous front teeth) was the clarity of the lyrics and instruments. You can hear them all distinctly and clearly. Many bands could learn from this, especially you two.
Where I am going with this is that we really do like clarity (mochaccino drinkers and vest wearers are obviously excluded). The pursuit of clarity also explains much about our political views. This intrigues me. I have always wondered why people are fundamentally ‘left or right’, and that within each grouping their values are consistently predicable. For example, people who are politically right tend be anti abortion, anti gun control, anti government, anti tax.
We rarely meet anybody on the right who is pro the Resource Management Act and anti bicycle lanes, or pro tax and anti government. Conversely, on the left you don’t meet people who are pro state schools and anti Islam or anti food labelling but pro universal free health care.
It’s weird, sets of values just seem to go hand in hand even when they appear unrelated. Naturally you would expect pro state schools to be pro tax, because the taxes are needed to pay for the schools. But even if you accept that the right’s values are essentially libertarian, then why are they anti abortion?
I can only assume that its all about clarity. If you believe in one thing you are handed the rest as a set of club rules. Your values and beliefs are clear. No need for nuance or worrying about contradiction. (I mean how would you justify to someone why you have ordered a mochaccino.)
If you are a hippy, it comes neatly packaged with behaviours and values. It even comes with a costume. Likewise if you a stockbroker or a used car salesman (note that the costume is the same).
Life can be complicated, but one way to simplify it is to have a clear set of values. This requires reduced critical thinking so that we can blindly barge through life all the while believing we have it sussed.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that it’s actually a good thing that there is more to Darth Vader than just a cool mask and that chicken is more popular than Elvis. In our search for clarity we can become blind and intolerant. The next time I’m next standing next to someone who orders a mochaccino I’m going to pat them on the back and praise them for their open-mindedness. Then I’ll shout them a short black.
Richard Alexander Bain
self confessed clearhead