Happy Hogswatch
Hogswatch seems to have settled in as my new mid-winter holiday of choice. And so, a bit of dialogue from Hogfather, slightly mangled for brevity.
S- All right. I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
D- No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
S- Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-
D- Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
S- So we can believe the big ones?
D- Yes. Justice, mercy, duty, that sort of thing.
S- They're not the same at all!
D- You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet you act as if there is some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.
S- Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
D- My point exactly. You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?
S- All right. I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
D- No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
S- Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-
D- Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
S- So we can believe the big ones?
D- Yes. Justice, mercy, duty, that sort of thing.
S- They're not the same at all!
D- You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet you act as if there is some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.
S- Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
D- My point exactly. You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?