Everyone wants a vision. No one wants a visionary. We like to eat filet mignon, but we don't want to visit the meat packing plant, and don't ask about having to work there.

The problem with a vision is its source. Either a vision comes from God or it doesn't, and either way it's a problem. If a vision comes from God, that presents a problem for the agnostic and atheist, but it presents a much bigger problem for the theist, because then they are forced to respond. Theists of all persuasions have gone to great lengths to raise the barriers against having to deal with novel visions. This is called canonization. Basically you carve out one very big steak, and then you outlaw butchery. If two thousand years later people are getting a bit hungry, well, let them have Stone Phillips.

The modern, secular thing to do is forget the source. Let's just look at the content. Then instead of the meat packer you have the meat grinder. Here we have a vision, now let us examine it. The philosophers will perform a philosophical analysis, the physicists will perform a physical analysis, the psychologists will perform a psychoanalysis, etc. This is called deconstruction, which is the opposite of canonization, but the practical effect is the same -- no vision.

So here I am, back from my forty days in the desert only to be greeted by the meat packer and the meat grinder. What's a visionary to do? There are two things we can do, walk on water or play some serious politics. I attempt both.

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rev. 2/9/98