The Radicals, The Innovators.

I was reading a parable, a beautiful parable, The Innovator by G. William Jones, and I wold like to share it with you. Here it goes:


"It had been a long, long time since such a crime had been committed and, as punishment, the Innovator would receive a sentence which had not been heard of for a long, long time - not since the days of the great-great-greats. It was a sentence at once so terrible and horrifying in its aspect that the High Court and the C.D.'s felt that it justly fit the nauseous and perverse crime of innovation. The punishment was to be expulsion from the Dome!

The citizens lined both sides of the street, their expression a mixture of hatred and awe as their eyes followed the progress of the innovator, escorted by a cordon of C.D.'s towards the Lox. Gamblers in the crowd were busily making book on how long it would take the Innovator to die once he was outside the Dome, and on whether it would be death from Fallout, Poison gas, or perhaps even from a Wild beast. There was no doubt that he would soon die (for embedded deep in the mind of each citizen was the truism that no human life could possibly exist outside the. protection of the Dome -- that beloved plastic canopy erected by their great, great, great grandfathers, which stretched over the city from limit to limit, cuddling it in a benevolent, airtight grip). The only question was how long would death take to come and in what form?

Some of the sadists in the crowd had scraped through the thick crust of dirt on the Dome wall near the Lox so that they could see the Outside, and were selling places at these peepholes for a nice sum.

The C.D.'s and their prisoner had arrived at the Lox. The crowd retreated now in a minor panic for fear that some poisonous fume might enter the Dome when the Lox was opened. The mechanism was still good, although it had been unused for all these generations. At the press of a button from the Chief, the thick transparent door of the Lox swung jerkily open. The Innovator, with a last mournful look over his shoulder, as pushed rather roughly into the small compartment. The door was then shut, and the citizens held their collective breath as the Chief touched the next button. The outer door swung open with a great hissing into that unhealthy green Outside.

At his first breath of the Outside's air, the Innovator fell headlong, coughing, doubled up with a giant convulsion. The C.D.'s nodded their heads, pleased, and there was a clamour almost like a cheer that arose from those at the peepholes as they watched him and their wristwatches to determine the exact second of his last gasp.

But then the terrible thing happened. The Innovator slowly raised his head from the dust and, with the beginnings of a smile of great joy upon his face, filled his lungs deeply. His eyes grew wide. He sat up, and they could see his chest bulging with gulp after gulp of that alien air. The people were so startled that they cried aloud when he suddenly jumped from a sitting position straight up, coming down in the first steps of a wild dance.

'It must have hit his brain first' said one spectator, his nose flattened against the Dome wall.

The Innovator stopped his dance abruptly as he turned to see the faces peering out at him. He smiled at them - a broad, toothy smile with no malice in it at all. He even opened his arms wide to them, making a beckoning gesture!

At this point, many of those watching him could take no more, and turned away to go back to their homes, shuddering with a nausea of fear.

After making many gestures of well-being to those amazed and still uncomprehending faces, the Innovator snapped his fingers and stooped to pick up a stick. With it, he wrote in large letters upon the ground 'Come on out -- the air is fine!'

One after another shocked faces left the peepholes, not to return.

Again he wrote in the dirt, this time with more urgency ,'It is fresh air -- not poison.'

Still more left.

This time, almost frantic to make him-self understood, he wrote 'You don't NEED the Dome anymore. You can live Outside! It is BETTER out here!'

With this, every face disappeared from the clear places in the grimy walls, and the Innovator was left alone in the Outside with his brilliant sun, its fresh and moving air, its trees and plants three times the size of those inside the Dome, and its birds and animals.

The newspapers the next morning carried grisly stories of the Innovator's immediate death outside the Lox. The city fathers decided in an emergency session that the interior of the Dome should be painted opaquely to a height of twenty feet all around. And those watchers who could not be scared into abject secrecy were interned in the asylum, where talk of living outside the Dome could be taken for what it was -- the raving of a lunatic."

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A beautiful parable. This is the situation of humanity. Down the ages this has been so. Man has lived in a man-created dome of beliefs, ideas, dogmas. The churches, temples, institutions, wells or scriptures are just plastic domes. They are protecting man from Nature. They are not helping you to go to Nature. They are preventing you from going. When a man like the Innovator comes, he starts talking about strange things which exist outside the domes. He talks about fresh air and green trees, birds and songs, sun and clouds -- a thousand and one things. And you have lived in a plastic dome. You have never been out of it. You have never been out of the well. You have never been out of the traps of the priests or the politicians. And he comes and starts saying things which are wild -- things which have a great appeal, things which are magnetic, things which provoke and challenge! But those are the things you have not heard for ages. You become suspicious. You become afraid. You become angry. You become angry because this man thinks you are all fools!

That's why people go on asking, "Do you think you are far wiser than our Founding Father? Do you think you are more knowing than our elites? Then our extraordinary scholars? Do you think that you have brought truth for the first time?" People believe they have always had the Truth, that is in their possession. There is actually nothing in their possession. So, whenever a man of truth comes, a rebellious character comes into the world, innovation comes into the world. And the people crush such a man (or woman).

We have to create a world where innovators and innovative personalities (or some would brand them as radicals) can be accepted more easily. Where innovators are not only accepted but welcomed. Because it is these innovators who would help you to go higher and higher in consciousness. It is these radicals who can sense the right direction to move. They are your true vision to the future. They are the steps towards real progress!

The Garuda - 23 August 2007.