A Simple Truth

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
[The Golden Rule]

“Be kind to one another.” [Ephesians 4:32]

Many great ideas start with a simple basic truth or understanding.

And, like clockwork, somewhere along the way the simple truth becomes corrupted or bogged down by unnecessary clutter, manipulation, or dogma.

This usually happens when there are too many chefs in the kitchen….jockeying for position or power.

History and human nature provide many of examples of this pattern – from the founding of the Catholic Church, to the production of a television show, or the creation of a school district’s curriculum.

From the Councils of Nicaea to the various Ecumenical Councils – it came down to a bunch of Bishops or Cardinals arbitrarily deciding what texts would be included in the Bible and what beliefs the church would follow. In a nutshell, a group of men in a smoke filled room designed a lot of doctrine, ritual, and bureaucracy around a simple belief system and marketed it as the Catholic Church.

A pretty similar pattern occurs in the production of a basic TV pilot. Judd Apatow’s indie movie, “The TV Set” outlines in painful (and humorous) detail how studio and network executive’s input destroy a writer’s simple heartfelt coming of age story and turn it into a commercialized sitcom bearing little resemblance to the original script.

Then there is the ongoing war between administrators and educators on the best way to teach Johnny to read: Whole Word vs. Phonics. The winners are the administrators who determine the school district’s curriculum (i.e. Whole Word). The loser is the generation of students who are diagnosed as dyslexic because the curriculum of doesn’t teach Johnny to read.

By the same token, have you noticed how some really good self-help ideas or movements evolve (or devolve) into almost cult-like environments?

It is a rare thing to find a gem of a truth that hasn’t been tarnished from the incessant meddling and tinkering of marketing and human nature.

What can we do as mere mortals in the midst of the smoke & mirrors and razzle dazzle?

Take a step back and consider the source – in spite of the packaging.

Be an educated consumer – of all things.

Simply put: Question Everything! (but - be polite about it!) ;-)

References

Fanning, J.J. (2005) Phonics vs. the Whole Language - Who's The Winner, Really? Retrieved January 19, 2010, http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2025.htm

Apatow, J. & Kasdan, J. (2006) The TV Set. Retrieved January 19, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473709/