The Guru & The Journalist
26 Jan 2012
News:
Any self-respecting political guru would begin by abolishing himself
(Telegraph)
Let me sharpen up and rewrite this Telegraph article as follows:
What is a
political guru? A wild young man or a starry eyed old man who has let go
of the moral and intellectual box that imprisons the rest of humanity, a
guru who points out the lunacy of society and teaches us to expand our
minds and take control of life.
Some specialise in the dark arts of
appearances, we call these men PR gurus, Spin Doctors, Witch Doctors,
Sophists and Cave Painters. Some specialise in the exact opposite,
looking into the light and trying to turn people's backs to the cave
wall, the very cave wall they have spent a lifetime watching and
enjoying. We call this second type philosophers, dreamers and idealists
who talk about ships and stars and gods and goods and other strange
things.
The former are a danger to society, the latter are theoretically
our salvation; yet the problem is we journalists who hold the golden
keys to the people's minds can't tell, or don't want to tell, the
difference.
The terrible truth is that any guru who understands what we journalist are really like
deep inside would know how hopeless trying to turn the world toward the
light is, he would know we are going to spend our lives glued to the
cave wall, at least until disaster shakes the world. He would know that
it's our self-respect he challenges, and our patience he tries, we
journalists know deep down we don't know very much, but we compensate
for that by knowing a little bit about everything. The guru dares to
take all that away from us, he says our skill is in one thing only,
namely the science of rhetoric, and he tells us we need to study it, and
he takes all the rest away from us and says it is someone else's job.
A
guru would know we are never going to accept that, he wouldn't try to
teach anyone or be anyone's friend in journalism or politics or the
other arts of power, he would know that until the would goes mad it's
hopeless to try and reach gatekeepers like us. The true guru would live
in wooden hut on a mountain top with the internet, publishing an
analysis of society and the problems and solutions to issues big and
small, knowing that one day when the streets are running with blood and
gore his research will be found and given the attention it deserves.
At
least that is what any self respecting guru would do because all other
paths would be humiliating and painful. But as I think about that
thought I wonder what a guru without self-respect would do?
Didn't they
say that Socrates had no ego? I think it would be pretty blasphemous to
call Jesus self-respecting too wouldn't it? Come to think about it,
self-respect is not a feature of the true guru, it's something
associated with little people and great impostors. When you really look
the gorgon in the eye, wasn't it self love that killed the Athenians as
well as the modern world? The true guru doesn't care about pain or
humiliation, so perhaps he would try to turn a few lost souls around in
the interim instead of living alone on that mountain top.
Still, I for
one won't be listening to him, I have a wife and kids back at the cave
and I am not going to stick my neck above the parapet and try to write
something filled with light! Send me a sophist not a philosopher, teach
me to be the greater rhetorician of all time, to know exactly how to
reach the hearts and minds of my fellow men, and then I shall be happy
and rich and leave evolution to my next life.
How can I shake my
audience to the very core, transporting them to new heights, making
their minds wild with fear and excitement? How can I play the pan pipes
of the shepherd who controls the flock, how can I make them love me more
than they have ever loved another writer before? Aren't these the dreams
we journalists care about, not the mad world saving art of philosophy.
If a guru can give me that I would read his web site, for that even I
would study wretched philosophy!
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