By: J. Speer-Williams (c)copyright 2010
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Many years ago, I was in the coal-mining business, in West Virginia. It was there that I had an interesting conversation with a grizzled old coal-miner, who had once been trapped deep underground, after a cave-in.
“When I heard the rumblings of that cave-in getting closer to me,” he said, “well … that put me to thinking.”
When suddenly assaulted by an intemperate crisis, most of us are thrown into a state of fear, which inhibits any thinking. But perhaps, the old miner was simply calling the fear he must have felt – “thinking.”
Today, historic dangers are at hand for Americans, from almost every quarter, from our federal government to the pharmaceutical/medical combine, throwing some of us into a paralytic fear, with still fewer of us able to give our precarious situation much thought at all. The despotic triumvirate of the federal government, international banks, and multi-national corporations have made life much like trying to transverse a mine-field, without many of us knowing where the land mines are, and many more not even knowing they are in a mine field; such is their desire to avoid being fearful or inconvenienced with thinking.
From personal experience, I know the way I’ve tried to avoid fear, or being forced to think, is to look to “authorities” or “experts” to answer my questions. After all, isn’t that what they’re paid to do?
But, in more responsible moments, I’m nagged by the words of Albert Einstein who said, “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” More
