O-k-a-y, I don’t deny that this is a formidable set of questions, so is it pie in the sky for me to expect to resolve, not just one of them—enough in itself to induce a person to keep turning (and writing) these pages—but all of them. All those birds killed with a single stone! That would seem to be an unimaginably tall order.
Nevertheless, I am after an idea or meme that is able to explain everything to my utter satisfaction. Yes, I’m asking for the earth; why settle for anything less? Simply put, I want a full and frontal grand solution—logically elegant and overarching—to every philosophical question ever thought of. Goodness, wouldn’t such a monster deserve a suitably grand title? How about: The Theory of Everything?
Nah, that’s been done by a bunch of egghead scientists . . . or at least it’s been attempted. Let me tweak that appellation a little. There, from now on we’ll call it:
The Theory of Everythink.
But now, let’s take a second to re-muster. We’ll just back off a pace from the windmill and lower our lances, because to claim that I’m after an easy answer is not quite accurate. I mustn’t raise the reader’s expectations quite that high.
What I mean to unearth isn’t Universal Acid, exactly, but a key, tool or device to pry at chinks in the human condition. In other words, anticipate from me a philosopher’s stone. It won’t do it all for you (it lacks the Midas touch). It will require from its wielder a little work and patience.
But take heart. It will prove powerful enough to destroy your old world view, and permit the construction of a new and marvelous replacement. The time and the effort spent will be worth it. You’ll win the hand of the princess and the crown of the kingdom to boot. The Theory of Everythink will hand you everything on a platter.
But its main purpose will be to nut out a brand-spanking ideology: Ism (‘I’ ‘is’ at this ‘M’oment). Now, that must be better than any three wishes.
And that’s the preamble to the ramblings over also. The first book is done. I’ve brought Theo up to the headiest of heights, but I won’t be so irresponsible as to leave you up there high and dry. The second part of my mission is to bring you down safe and secure.
In the book that follows, we’re going to have to process the journey. There’s a lot to unpack and internalize before we’re fit to be released into society and the world the world at large. Let’s debrief.
The pages we’ve passed through you may think of as a greatest hits package. I grant that in style it’s a bit of a rock opera. What follows now will be the loose jamming that happens backstage after the concert is over: the gradual unwinding.
Or, to use another analogy—one that we’ve made a lot of use of—we’ve just sat through the main feature and have now selected another option from the menu. This book is unique in that you get to rerun the entire movie alongside a running commentary. We’ll ask for input from the producer, the director and an actor or two.
I suggest that you make yourself comfortable—maybe get yourself a refill of popcorn (just go easy on the coke). You see, our next job is to work out how the theory translates into practice. It’ll be a Talmud of sorts. I want to follow up some of the consequences of our new home-spun philosophy. I bet that, where the rock and a hard place meet, and where The Theory of Everythink evolves into the ideology of Ism, it will lead us to a veritable bizarro world of conclusions.
Be seeing you.
