Old Hippie

This is a line written by Harry Nilsson in his 1970s album "The Point", later made into a TV cartoon movie by the same name. It was said by "The Rock Man" as he was talking to Oblio and his dog Arrow. You see, Oblio was born in the Land of Point with a round head, unlike all the rest of the inhabitants, who all had a point at the top of their heads. He was accused by the evil Count to be in violation of the law because the law said that everyone and everything must have a point and was banished by the King to The Pointless Forest because, after all, the law was the law. Arrow was found guilty of complicity and banished as well.

As Oblio and Arrow travelled through the Pointless Forest they began to realize that it wasn't pointless at all. In fact, all the trees had points and all the leaves had points and there were literally points everywhere. They bumped into the Rock Man who, seeing that the boys were pretty shook up, probably been goofin' with the bees, he proceeded to set them straight about the Pointless Forest. "Say, baby, there ain't nothing pointless about this gig. You see, the thing is, you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear."

Where am I going with this? The FairTax Plan for one thing. I have read many of the reviews of this fine book on Amazon.com and am astounded at how many people incorrectly portray what this plan says. They say it is regressive and will hurt the poor the most, completely ignoring the prebate feature which ensure that no one pays the tax on basic necessities. It completely eliminates the tax burden on poor people, including payroll taxes, something NO other plan accomplishes. How does the poor paying NO taxes hurt the poor?

You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

One writer states it maintains the IRS to manage the sales tax. Yet the bill and the book states the FairTax would NOT go into effect until January 1st of the year following the repeal of the 16th amendment authorizing the IRS. The Social Security Administration would be in charge of paying the prebate to citizens.

You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

Another takes issue with the fact that a 23% sales tax would only add about 1% to the total cost of goods. This completely ignores the book's discussion about imbedded taxes in every product we buy because corporations pass their taxes on to the consumer through increased prices for their product. A pervasive business practise. With no corporate taxes, prices of products will drop by roughly 22%, the sum amount of taxes paid by businesses imbedded in their products.

You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

There were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. I hear this stated as a fact, however there have been numerous reports of biological agents found after Saddam crumbled. There were no large stockpiles of these WMDs but they were found. Do you know how much nerve gas or anthrax it takes to wreak havoc on a large city? Not a huge stockpile. A little bit of WMDs is not equal to no WMDs.

You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

Psychologists have discovered that humans pass sensory information through a kind of personal filter which often times completely changes the meaning. This may explain some of the ignorance exhibited when someone completely "ignores" what was said or done and retells it with a new meaning. Personal filters are formed subconsciously over long periods of time and, as such, are essentially out of our direct control.

However, I believe that we also have installed in our brains our own personal filters that we are completely aware of and work hard to make sure that they are not incongruous with the facts as we understand them. In other words, we craft these filters consciously and with forethought so that our personal belief system is in line with what we want it to be. What we want it to be? Yes, we feel that we should believe in something or that we should feel a certain way even if the facts prove otherwise.

This is, of course, completely illogical and drives the left side of our brain crazy. But the creative right side of the brain will compensate for that and determine that our feelings are just as important as logic, so facts be damned if they don't support my feelings.

You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

We have left and right side brain functions to help us become complete people. We need balance between creativity and logic to make us whole. Machines, computers especially, are completely logical, totally devoid of feelings. No man can live this way. It takes creative thinking to temper the logical mind. However, making things up without regard to facts, pure creativity, will not produce any useful results. Think lying. Not useful and not good but purely creative. There has to be logic and there has to be creativity in some sort of balance.

I am guilty,too, of seeing and hearing what I want sometimes but whenever I catch myself, or someone else does, I try to rethink my position in light of the facts and allow for the truth of what I see and hear. I don't think I do myself any favors by believing in distorted perceptions of reality. Give me the real thing no matter what it is.

When someone tells you something that you really don't want to hear or shows you something you really don't want to believe, you don't have to confuse the issue with those facts if it makes you uncomfortable. You can filter it however you want. You can see what you want and you can hear what you want. It's up to you.

The Rock Man continued his questioning by asking Oblio if he had ever seen Paris? No. "Have you ever seen New Dehli?" No. "Well, that's just it, he said. You see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear."

And with that, the Rock Man fell fast and soundly asleep, leaving Oblio and Arrow, once more, quite alone.

OH