Jassy Melson
02-06-2012, 01:40 PM
His arrival on the scene was perhaps inevitable in these latter days.
He just suddenly appeared with seemingly no history or past.
Without preamble or explanation, he simply proclaimed that he had all the answers.
His sudden arrival and his rather bold statement aroused the curiosity of millions. Popes, presidents and world leaders began conferring with him. After that, the avalanche began, and it showed no sign of abating. Perhaps we are so riven with doubt in these latter days that a man with the simple declarative statement: I have all the answers, satisfies our hunger for certainty.
Be that as it may, the man was suddenly all over magazine covers and in newspaper accounts and the media in general.
His name is Homer Vinci, and he is a rather unassuming-looking character of medium height and weight, conservatively dressed with slicked-back hair and a pencil-thin mustache.
He is a great communicator--in all forms of media.
His main advertisement consisted of a simple statement: I will answer any question of worldwide import for $50.
Call me foolish, call me naive, but I figured it would be worth $50 for him to answer a specific question I had. None of the so-called experts seemed to give any satisfactory answers to the question I had. If the man was a mere charlatan, his reply would reveal it, but if he had some real insight into my question, I figured that $50 was an investment worth taking.
The man gave a mailing address in Athens, Tennessee, so I wrote him a brief letter (including a money order for $50) and stated my question. It concerned religion: Does God exist? And if God does exist, what are his or her or its attributes? I knew that was actually two questions, but I figured if the man had any validity he would answer both questions for the price of one.
A few days later, I received his reply, which was written in longhand on plain stationery and signed by him. It left more questions:
"The battle line was drawn long ago. Either you believe in God or you don't. There is no middle ground. Some might say there is the alternative of agnosticism, but agnosticism implies doubt. If you don't believe in God, there ends further debate. If you believe in God, the question is What are its attributes? There are perhaps a half-dozen leading religions in the world. All of them are distinct and provide different answers to your question. Your question did not imply that I give you an answer concerning my own personal beliefs, which have no bearing on the matter anyway."
This reply gave me food for thought, but was somewhat evasive. But I couldn't dismiss the reply. It was clear he had given some thought to his answer, and everything he had stated was true. It just didn't somehow answer the question.
But he had aroused my curiosity, and it was clear from his reply that he was not a charlatan.
So I sent him a second question--along with $50. The question concerned philosophy, and it was simply this: Will Western philosophy ever regain the coherent whole and "popularity" it once displayed and enjoyed?
His reply was succinct. He answered simply "No. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Western philsophy has been shattered into rather small departments all concerned with their own basic issues, and it will remain so. Western philosophy is "dead" in the sense that it has stopped striving for a coherent whole."
This reply set me to thinking, and I thought it well worth the $50 I had sent him.
So I sent the man a third question having to do with science in general: Is science now the dominate religion, and will science provide us with the basic answers to the questions of life?
His reply was again succinct and brief: "Yes, science has become the dominate religion, but no it will not and cannot provide us with the answers to the basic questions of life. It may pretend to do so, but science in general leads only to further questions."
The fourth question I asked him concerned art in general: How did he see art evolving?
His reply was this: "Art in general has become mere technique--nothing more or less. This will not change in the future."
My next question concerned literature. What did he see as the future of literature?
His reply: "Literature in general has no future. The days of "world literature" are gone. All writing is and will remain regional. There will be no striving for a world view."
Although I disagreed with some of his replies, they had all been thought-provoking and, I thought, well-worth the $250 I had invested; although I must admit, he had not really provided answers.
The final question I asked him was this: What is the future political, economic and social outlook of the world?
The reply the man sent me still rings in my ears, for although he didn't actually answer the question, he provided an insight that is all too true.
His reply: "In the political, economic and social spheres, there is no future of the world. There will be wars interspersed with bouts of peace. So-called terrorism will continue. Our world has become divided into camps of different and competing ideologies. The world will know no real economic stability. Worldwide depressions punctuated by small recoveries will continue. As a great poet stated about a hundred years ago: 'Things fall apart/the center cannot hold/mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/the blood-dimmed tide is loosed/and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.' Because of human nature, real worlwide economic stability and peace will never come."
I had other queries, but unfortunately my bank account would not allow me to ask the man any more questions.
The sudden disappearance of the man with all the answers was as sudden as his arriving upon the scene.
He simply disappeared from all view. All his advertisements disappeared; all the questions he was asked went unanswered. Numerous attempts were made to track him down--including an attempt by the IRS, but they all came to naught. It was as if Homer Vinci had suddenly ceased to exist.
To this day, nothing has been seen or heard of the man with all the answers.
I am left with one thought: He was and is not a charlatan. And I figure I got my 300 bucks worth.
Some reading this may ask: So what? What is the point of this? I can only reply that there is no real point. I simply thought that in these, the latter days, my experience with the man with all the answers might be interesting.
He just suddenly appeared with seemingly no history or past.
Without preamble or explanation, he simply proclaimed that he had all the answers.
His sudden arrival and his rather bold statement aroused the curiosity of millions. Popes, presidents and world leaders began conferring with him. After that, the avalanche began, and it showed no sign of abating. Perhaps we are so riven with doubt in these latter days that a man with the simple declarative statement: I have all the answers, satisfies our hunger for certainty.
Be that as it may, the man was suddenly all over magazine covers and in newspaper accounts and the media in general.
His name is Homer Vinci, and he is a rather unassuming-looking character of medium height and weight, conservatively dressed with slicked-back hair and a pencil-thin mustache.
He is a great communicator--in all forms of media.
His main advertisement consisted of a simple statement: I will answer any question of worldwide import for $50.
Call me foolish, call me naive, but I figured it would be worth $50 for him to answer a specific question I had. None of the so-called experts seemed to give any satisfactory answers to the question I had. If the man was a mere charlatan, his reply would reveal it, but if he had some real insight into my question, I figured that $50 was an investment worth taking.
The man gave a mailing address in Athens, Tennessee, so I wrote him a brief letter (including a money order for $50) and stated my question. It concerned religion: Does God exist? And if God does exist, what are his or her or its attributes? I knew that was actually two questions, but I figured if the man had any validity he would answer both questions for the price of one.
A few days later, I received his reply, which was written in longhand on plain stationery and signed by him. It left more questions:
"The battle line was drawn long ago. Either you believe in God or you don't. There is no middle ground. Some might say there is the alternative of agnosticism, but agnosticism implies doubt. If you don't believe in God, there ends further debate. If you believe in God, the question is What are its attributes? There are perhaps a half-dozen leading religions in the world. All of them are distinct and provide different answers to your question. Your question did not imply that I give you an answer concerning my own personal beliefs, which have no bearing on the matter anyway."
This reply gave me food for thought, but was somewhat evasive. But I couldn't dismiss the reply. It was clear he had given some thought to his answer, and everything he had stated was true. It just didn't somehow answer the question.
But he had aroused my curiosity, and it was clear from his reply that he was not a charlatan.
So I sent him a second question--along with $50. The question concerned philosophy, and it was simply this: Will Western philosophy ever regain the coherent whole and "popularity" it once displayed and enjoyed?
His reply was succinct. He answered simply "No. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Western philsophy has been shattered into rather small departments all concerned with their own basic issues, and it will remain so. Western philosophy is "dead" in the sense that it has stopped striving for a coherent whole."
This reply set me to thinking, and I thought it well worth the $50 I had sent him.
So I sent the man a third question having to do with science in general: Is science now the dominate religion, and will science provide us with the basic answers to the questions of life?
His reply was again succinct and brief: "Yes, science has become the dominate religion, but no it will not and cannot provide us with the answers to the basic questions of life. It may pretend to do so, but science in general leads only to further questions."
The fourth question I asked him concerned art in general: How did he see art evolving?
His reply was this: "Art in general has become mere technique--nothing more or less. This will not change in the future."
My next question concerned literature. What did he see as the future of literature?
His reply: "Literature in general has no future. The days of "world literature" are gone. All writing is and will remain regional. There will be no striving for a world view."
Although I disagreed with some of his replies, they had all been thought-provoking and, I thought, well-worth the $250 I had invested; although I must admit, he had not really provided answers.
The final question I asked him was this: What is the future political, economic and social outlook of the world?
The reply the man sent me still rings in my ears, for although he didn't actually answer the question, he provided an insight that is all too true.
His reply: "In the political, economic and social spheres, there is no future of the world. There will be wars interspersed with bouts of peace. So-called terrorism will continue. Our world has become divided into camps of different and competing ideologies. The world will know no real economic stability. Worldwide depressions punctuated by small recoveries will continue. As a great poet stated about a hundred years ago: 'Things fall apart/the center cannot hold/mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/the blood-dimmed tide is loosed/and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.' Because of human nature, real worlwide economic stability and peace will never come."
I had other queries, but unfortunately my bank account would not allow me to ask the man any more questions.
The sudden disappearance of the man with all the answers was as sudden as his arriving upon the scene.
He simply disappeared from all view. All his advertisements disappeared; all the questions he was asked went unanswered. Numerous attempts were made to track him down--including an attempt by the IRS, but they all came to naught. It was as if Homer Vinci had suddenly ceased to exist.
To this day, nothing has been seen or heard of the man with all the answers.
I am left with one thought: He was and is not a charlatan. And I figure I got my 300 bucks worth.
Some reading this may ask: So what? What is the point of this? I can only reply that there is no real point. I simply thought that in these, the latter days, my experience with the man with all the answers might be interesting.