Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors

There’s a red curtain in front of a silent audience in front of a stage in front of the world. Any minute now, you might expect David Blaine or Chris Angel to magically appear, but silence prolongs itself. Instead, a hooded man named Fear protrudes and begins his act, surveying the crowd for his next assistant. When the assistant volunteers his reaching hand, he is cowardly taken-aback for Fear had neither hands nor eyes. Hence, the insecure volunteer rests assured that his magic is safe, given that a handless and eyeless entity won’t deprive him of his possessions nor use his judgment against him.  Believing in the magician’s compassion and just demeanor, he surrenders to the disappearance act. As the fidgety crowd waits for the illusion, lights flicker and go out. Thereafter, Fear reappears with eyes and arms outstretched, clothed in the volunteer’s garments. Whatever happened to that man? Nothing happened. He was just an illusion- simply, part of the act.

The moral of the story is that Fear uses smoke and mirrors to deceive men into doing his bidding. He tricks men into believing he is part of the act, when the act is actually on them. Claiming he is compassionate and considerate, he deprives them of their possessions- metaphoric hands robbing not only man’s physical aspect, but their intangible self: their ability to act for hands help us carry out our purpose. Moreover, Fear prevents the audience from the ability to see for all “lights are out”.  Fear, being an emotion is incompatible with reason but morphs itself into men and consequently, men morph themselves into fear- a parasite/host relationship that inverts the outcome. The oppressed become the oppressive.  And so the curtain falls, the individuality of men dissipates and the cycle repeats itself as part of the next act.

History is the stage. Fear is the entity. Men are the players. All of mankind’s immorality - ranging from wars, holocausts, robbery and tyranny- stems from the traits of inferiority complexes derived from Fear. Fearful men become Fear itself. Not only does understanding the historic “magician” function for our understanding, but it helps us predict the future (although improbable as magic itself). The wicked acts that will come – be it 10 years from now, or a millennium- will always use smoke and mirrors to usurp men of their reality under the guise of benevolence and magic.

And the only way to prevent that Fear is by calling it as one sees it before one sees it not- before the curtain falls and we are all left wondering, “What happened to that man?”