I can’t remember if it’s “old men will dream dreams and young men will see visions” or vice versa. Like most, I don’t even know if I’m a young man or an old one. At any rate, I can’t get an idea out of my head.
Pictured was a huge valley, rimmed by mountains and filled with fog.
Each time someone in the valley told a lie, they added to the fog. The fog grew ever denser. When someone in the valley told the truth, he’d be surrounded by a clearer bubble. As long as he told the truth, the bubble remained clear. Since the truth-tellers could see where they were going, they tended to move around in the valley. They made real progress.
The truth-tellers tended to get to the edge of the valley and could see to climb the steep hills that surrounded the basin. The higher they got, the clearer the air became. They could see the world beyond the fog.
Some of the truth-tellers would return to the people in the fog. They would encourage other people to tell the truth and escape through the clarity they found. A few would listen and escape, and a few of them would return and encourage friends and relatives to get away. It was a continuous process that lasted thousands of years.
Many people preferred living in the fog. They did not like being told that better vision was possible. The more their livelihoods depended on deceptions, the less likely they were to want to see and understand more. If anyone had too much of an effect, the foggers put him to death.
The fog that each lie produced was a slightly different color. Lies told for money and possessions generated a light green fog. Prevarications that destroyed lives were a reddish color. All the different colors combined to make a thick, white fog.
Every lie that was told to another was preceded by several lies told to oneself. “I have to lie, I am going to lie, and it’s all right to lie because I really need what I want.”
It was very, very foggy in the valley.
It still is. It’s supposed to be.
