Guest Column

...By accident! Conan the Objectivist and I had been bemoaning a set of particularly silly Stupid Human Tricks to one another in e-mail and in response to a flippant one-liner ("Perception is reality -- to some."), he produced this:

I suspect we live in the nexus of intersection of two worlds. In one of those worlds, reality is perception; in the other, reality is what is.

In the first world, work consists of manipulating other people's perceptions; in the second, work consists of manipulating reality. In the first world, the successful person's job is his career; in the second, the successful person's career is his job. (To amplify, in the first world, the successful person works at his career. His job is incidental, a means to an end--the goal is the career. Any productive work he actually accomplishes is a coincidental byproduct of his efforts to advance his career by creating the perception that he is performing productive work. In the second world, the successful person works at his job. His career is a means to an end--the goal is the performance of productive work.)

In the first world, the purpose of speech is to cause other people to do, or think, what the speaker wishes; in the second world, the purpose of speech is to accurately convey facts and concepts and to facilitate cooperative effort. We find living in the first world politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, actors, TV personalities, most "journalists," and most business managers (which explains the state of business in this country). Residents of the second world include scientists, engineers, technicians, and--you hope--your doctor. Some poor souls attempt to live in both. I can't imagine a good outcome for them.

Words to ponder.