The following conversation occurred while driving back from the grocery store, where I had taken Joy, who was unable to drive because she was recovering from a knee replacement operation.

"So, Joy, did you watch the Scientific American Frontiers last night on TV?"

"Is that the program hosted by Alan Alda?"

"Yes"

"Yes, I saw it."

"What did you think about the segment disputing common cold remedies?"

"It was discouraging."

"I think it was amazing how all those new folk remedies had no more effect than the placebos.  That Florida researcher sure was hard to refute.  Poor Alan Alda, he seemed crushed by the finding that his Vitamin E had no more than a placebo effect."

"I liked the way he said he was going to take Vitamin E anyway."

"And the researcher seemed reconciled to that kind of reaction.  He must have encountered it before."

Pause.

"Joy, I'm troubled by the predicament this information poses.  When I get a cold I'd feel silly taking Vitamin E, or any of the other ineffective remedies, so I'd end up having a full-length, 7-day sickenesss.  But the person who hadn't watched the show, who takes the Vitamin E or whatever, will at least get the placebo effect, and may have a shorter sickness, like 5 days.  I can no longer have a 5-day cold, because I now know that those remedy claims are fraudulent.  If you don't believe in a remedy, it can't have the placebo effect.  Will you still take the Vitamin E, and Vitamin C, and echinacea?"

"Yes, and I'll continue to believe in them, and I'll have the 5-day colds."

"But at least my 7-day suffering will be noble!  And your 5-day suffering will be ignoble!"

"What's the good of information if it makes you suffer?"

"Truth is beauty!  It is worthy to encounter and embrace Truth, no matter what it's consequences."

"So, does the Truth set you free?"

"No, I've never believed it did.  Too often, an ill-advised expression of a Truth has put the person in jail, or gotten them stoned to death."

Pause.

"Gee, Joy, I just realized that if you hadn't believed in Syminton's 'guided imagery' you wouldn't be here today!  That's probably what saved you from your first bout with cancer [Joy actually did conquer stomach cancer, and considering the dire conventional medical prognosis, some credit must be given the guided imagery technique that she employed on her own]."

"Well, there you have it!  If it had been you who'd had cancer, you would have poo-poo'd guided imagery, and you might have died.  But my belief in it gave me the placebo effect, and I survived."

Pause.

Joy knew I was quiet because I was wrestling with cognitive dissonance, so she offered the following.  "Maybe Alan Alda said he'd continue taking Vitamin E because at some level of consciousness he wanted to continue to benefit from the placebo effect?"

"Yes, that's plausible.  But in doing that he'd be betraying his own beliefs!  I couldn't do that.  As Nietzsche said 'He who does not obey himself is ruled by others.'  Or, as my friend Alfred might say, 'No recognition of Truth goes unpunished!'  Every time a person tries to adhere to his chosen set of values, there is a chance that he will pay a price for it.  I guess I've committed myself to paying unforseen costs in pledging an unwavering allegiance to embracing the Truth, regardless of its harm to me, personally.  I've taken a stand, and I shall just have to suffer whatever consequences result from my allegiance."

After this melodramatic declaration, meant to soothe my cognitive dissonance, we had arrived at Joy's place and I dropped her off.  I sensed she was pleased by the cnversation, which, like many others, had an undertone of a disagreement which she won by merely agreeing with me!

Relevant Quotes:

"Do you know what the real question for a thinker is?  The real question is:  How much truth can I stand?" Friedrich Nietzsche character, Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept, New York: Basic Books,1992

"There is a basic division in the ways of men:  those who wish for peace of soul and happiness must believe and embrace faith, while those who wish to pursue truth must forsake peace of mind and devote their life to inquiry.  ... You must choose between comfort and true inquiry!  If you choose... to be liberated from the soothing chains of the supernatural, if... you choose to eschew belief and embrace godlessness, then you cannot in the same breath yearn for the small comforts of the believer!  ...If you choose to be one of those few who partake of the pleasure of growth and the exhilaration of godless freedom, then you must prepare yourself for the greatest pain.  They are bound together and cannot be experienced apart!  If you want less pain, then you must shrink, as the stoics did, and forego the highest pleasure."  op. cit.

"...the principle that the end justifies the means.  I have no inclination for a compromise founded on that basis.  Religion may be an excellent means of taming and training the perverse, obtuse and wicked biped race:  but in the eyes of the friend of truth, every fraud, however pious, is still a fraud.  A pack of lies would be a strange means of inducing virtue.  The flag to which I have sworn allegiance is truth:  I shall stay faithful to it everywhere and, regardless of the outcome, fight for light and truth." Arthur Schopenhauer,  Parerga and Paralipomena, 1851 (Essays and Aphorisms, R. J. Hollingdale, trans., London Penguin Books, 1970). p 107.

"Truth, my friend, truth alone holds firm, endures and stays steadfast: truth's consolation is the only solid consolation: it is the indestructible diamond."  op. cit., p 108.

"To free a man from an error is not to deprive him of anything, but to give him something:  for the knowledge that a thing is false is a piece of truth.  No error is harmless:  sooner or later it will bring misfortune to him who harbors it.  Therefore, deceive no one, but rather confess ignorance of what you do not know, and leave each man to devise his own articles of faith for himself."  op. cit., p 108.

"Whoever wishes to have ideas must first prepare himself to desire truth and to accept the rules of the game imposed by it."  Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1930, The Revolt of the Masses, Ch 8.

"To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle."  Albert Einstein, 1931, Living Philosophies: A Series of Intimate Credos, New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 4.

This site opened:  February 1, 2001.  Last Update:  April 14, 2001