GADFLY

Aristotle's defence at his trail:

"If you kill me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me."

"To sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of the truth"

The gadfly needs to be the postmodern man. The pinprick, the balloon deflator, the applier of cold water, the translator of signs, the voice that cries in the wilderness and the hand that stays the onslaught.

...I talk to the wind.

And the gadfly needs to start, by healing thyself. It is no good pontificating to an uncaring world with vacuous words. There is enough of that already. You begin by cleansing the dross of a lifetime that is your identity and place in this world. The unexamined life is not worth living as Aristotle also wisely added. Almost all that we are and believe has never been questioned or examined. We are a collection of disparate influences: family, community, peers, school and media. We have swallowed the menu whole in unquestioning obedience as good members of our society and culture. Now it is about time we look at ourselves and what we represent with an unjaundiced eye and a reasoned temperament. Undauntingly we must challenge our deepest core beliefs and values to find out if they pass the true test in the clear light of day. Then and only then can we proceed to view the wide expanse or our community, culture, nation and planet with open eyes and begin to effect a change which could transform our lives.

We must rub our eyes and throw off the sleepiness so as to begin to walk in the daylight of a mature human life. The childish things need to go. We are not playing with toys anymore.