This parable is for the (few) Shameful F iends who are attacking Ray... and the Sheep Class who are rushing along, thinking they have understood (rather like they thought they understood the truth of "Mother's" teachings?).
THE PARABLE OF THE PAINTING
"I am the most trusted servant commissioned by my employer Enoch to go to market to buy a work of art for him as an investment (the stockmarket keeps falling, so...). There, I am offered a painting by an Artist, Achan. I don't really like the painting, and Achan is a bit shifty in his effusive praise of his own work. Achan claims to be "inspired!". But I know I have no knowledge of paintings, and I am just trying to do the best job for my employer. Achan tells me that the elderly Caleb is an unbiased, neutral, expert, well-loved, experienced art Critic, and he will guide me. So I seek out Caleb, and ask for his opinion on Achan's painting. He is genuinely very nice. Caleb tells me that the painting has its flaws but he won't condemn it or state that it would not be likely to be a wise investment "in the long term". I accept and rely on Caleb's dispassionate judgment as an expert. I attribute my dislike of the painting to my own poor taste. I buy the painting and take it back to my employer, Enoch.
The next day, Eric's old logic teacher Fookus comes to visit my master's house. Fookus irritates many of us because he is almost always right, and he knows it too, and does not care if we do. Tact is not his strong point! This Fookus hears about the transaction, laughs (cruelly, I think) and tells Eric, in my presence, that Achan, the painter of the work I bought for Enoch, had while painting that same painting been following set RULES written down in a well-known "Caleb's Painting Technique Guide Book" that had been written twenty years ago by the VERY SAME ART CRITIC Caleb - and Caleb (at the time Caleb gave me his expert opinion yesterday) as an expert would have known that Achan had been following his own (Caleb's) rules (as well as his own individual painting ways).
Caleb, having grown wiser since writing that book all those years ago, has changed his mind on the technical rules for painting since. But I can't help feeling a little embarrassed. I should really have preferred it if Caleb had declined to comment to me, or pointed out that he could not really be neutral here as it was the application of Caleb's own "rules" upon which his opinion was being solicited. While Caleb's views may well be totally sincere, my fellow-servants (who would love to discredit me with Enoch, my employer, as they covet my position) can suggest I was foolish to rely on Caleb's judgment, as it could not BE SEEN TO BE WHOLLY DETACHED.
I am angry and embarrassed that I now appear to be a fool in front of Enoch and my peers of the Servant Class. So, with human weakness, I slander Fookus, the bearer of the unwelcome information, and shout:
(a) Fookus, you are despicable for attacking Caleb who is such a nice and honest man (but Fookus had not attacked Caleb, or implied anything bad about him - he had just stated two absolute facts);
(b) Fookus, how dare you insinuate that Caleb's book was written with bad intent - Caleb genuinely believed those rules produced good results back when he wrote them twenty years ago? (but Fookus had not done any such thing at all - Caleb's book, rules or his sincerity when he wrote the rules was never the issue);
(c) Fookus, how dare you hold Caleb responsible for the poor painting done by Achan ("hindsight is so valuable")? (but Fookus had not held Caleb at all responsible for the misuse to which his rules had been put).
(d) Fookus, how dare you insinuate Caleb and Achan were in league together (but Fookus had not insinuated any such thing, and actually he believes Caleb is now very critical of Achan the artist - just a little reluctant to admit that his OWN rules produced such a bad painting, a very human failing especially in an older person).
By introducing these strawmen, I hoped my own foolishness at not checking the background to my source, and possible sources of inadvertent bias, would be overlooked by Eric my master in the confusion.
So I say: "Damn that wicked Fookus! LET US ALL STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS! IT IS UNPRODUCTIVE! IT IS WRONG!"
[Translation: Fookus caught me out and made me look foolish.]
And I have many aliases and stooges in the servant's quarters, so we'll all say it, and churn the issue so the uninformed will get confused, so hopefully I won't get the blame. I really like Caleb.
But Eric was wise, and saw that Fookus (who also likes Caleb) had both:
1. not said what I claimed he had said, and
2. had stated only FACTS as to Caleb's authorship of the guide book and Caleb's embarrassed knowledge that Achan had followed that book.
Alas! Eric no longer trusts me with his important errands until I show I have learned to be more careful, discerning and not to blame others (Caleb or Fookus) falsely for my own folly, shortcomings and poor logic. I hate Fookus now. Shun him!"
--
The parable is deliberately not exact.
For those who still cannot comprehend (doh!), material has been placed HERE in a new post on the "Bill Bowen: a 'burial' ONLY for those who can read" thread where I spell out enough, to make the relevance of this parable clear even to the Matt. 7:26 Class. The baying of Ray's embarrassing defenders, and the virulence of their calumnies heaped upon Silentlambs compels me to be more explicit than I would have otherwise chosen.
Yes, I think Bill could have handled this with more subtlety, and probably keeping a clearer distinction between his personal views and the aims of Silentlambs would have been wise. "Hindsight" is useful. But "Hid Sight", the Watchtower's Tool, is despicable.
But Bill is his own man (as is Ray), and so it should be. There is no Borgian central management, and no CEO. We are not like that which we despise.
--
Focus
(Pickax Class)
Edited by - Focus on 31 October 2002 13:1:58