As I continue book 3 in the overlords of Mars series, I am continually surprised at how much can enter the persona of one of the characters, then switch to a completely different one and get into a very different mindset.
It is a very useful exercise for reminding us that we are not our ideas, or ideologies or even our most deeply held beliefs. And yet…
Something at the core that is absolutely founded on a bedrock of truth must remain. The mistake most people make is to think that such a bedrock is also formed in part by their political affiliation, belief in this or that ancestor’s idea about this or that “truth” or “tradition”. All the while, most of it is if not arbitrary, at least just optional.
Once you destroy the ego monsters that keep what you think of as your personality, what is left is truly quite simple and small, yet eternal.
And when you go digging into that, and it does not reduce at all, then that little fire expands and eventually… you reach an inescapable conclusion. that fantastic as it first seems, absurd, unrealistic, and counter to everything you have been told from birth… in truth… becomes undeniable.
You might have hated the idea. You might have railed against it from time to time. I certainly did. You might have thought it all a lie or stifling, or a way to control the masses and evil. You might have been fooled by the VAST number in modern times of people who used this undeniable truth for their own evil and truly dark ends. Almost all of us have been fooled in this way, really. And yet… it remains true.
