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ness. They are called “dysphotic.” They are the opposite of photographers
who may be called “photic,” for they have a keen sense of brightness dis-
crimination. There are subjects who have difficulties in assessing the regu-
lators that maintain their identity in a changing world. I shall call individuals
suffering from this disorder “dysgnostic,” for they have no way of knowing
themselves. Since this disorder has assumed extraordinary dimensions, it
has indeed been recognized at the highest national level.
As you all know, it has been observed that the majority of the American
people cannot speak. This is interpreted by saying that they are “silent”; I
say they are
mute
. However, as you all know very well, there is nothing
wrong with the vocal tract of those who are mute: the cause of their mute-
ness is deafness. Hence, the so-called “silent majority” is
de facto
a “deaf
majority.”
However, the most distressing thing in this observation is that there is
again nothing wrong with their auditory system; they could hear if they
wanted to: but they don't want to. Their deafness is voluntary, and in others
it is their blindness.
At this point proof will be required for these outrageous propositions.
TIME Magazine
(1970) provides it for me in its study of Middle America.
There is the wife of a Glencoe, Illinois lawyer, who worries about the
America in which her four children are growing up: “I want my children to
live and grow up in an America as I
knew
it,” [note the principle of con-
servation of rule where the future equals the past] “where we were proud
to be citizens of this country. I'm damned sick and tired of
listening
to all
this nonsense about how awful America is.” [Note voluntary deafness.]
Another example is a newspaper librarian in Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
who is angered by student unrest: “Every time I see protestors, I say, 'Look
at those creeps.' ” [Note reduction of visual acuity.] “But then my 12-year-
old son says, 'They're not creeps. They have a perfect right to do what they
want.' ” [Note the un-adult-erated perceptual faculty in the young.]
The tragedy in these examples is that the victims of “dysgnosis” not only
do not know that they don't see, hear, or feel, they also do not want to.
How can we rectify this situation?
Trivialization
I have listed so far several instances of perceptual disorders that block our
vision of the future. These symptoms collectively consitute the syndrome of
our epidemic disease. It would be the sign of a poor physician if he were to
go about relieving the patient of these symptoms one by one, for the elim-
ination of one may aggrevate another. Is there a single common denomi-
nator that would identify the root of the entire syndrome?
To this end, let me introduce two concepts, they are the concepts of the
“trivial” and the “non-trivial” machine. The term “machine” in this context
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