–James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 51

Can we appeal to our better angels and, in turn, oblige ourselves to be more responsible? The problem for all of us ordinary stiffs was defined a few centuries back by Plato.

In “The Republic,” Plato describes a cave where people don’t see what’s really happening in their world. What they do see are shadows made by puppets and reflected on the walls. It’s not as if the people in the cave even see the puppets, they see the shadows of the puppets.

Today, we see the shadows of what the puppet masters want us to see. Don’t believe it? Where do you get your news? How do you know what’s going on in your world? More to the point, who owns your news source?

Are you watching shadows or are you seeking reality? Are you a passive receiver of the story that someone else wants to tell you? Perhaps, you do seek another story, but do you seek that which you want to believe or do you challenge yourself to find reality, even if that reality is uncomfortable and challenges your assumptions?

Do you accept what you’re told or do you critically assess the news? Yes, questioning what you hear involves effort on your part. The beauty part is that it involves not even our better angels, but our lesser angels. It doesn’t take much effort these days to find another angle to a story. Bring up your browser and you can Google any number of takes on any news of the day.

What that involves, however, is a call to one of our lesser angels. You know the one. He sits there on your shoulder and ‘noodges’ you until you do the right thing. You heard the voice that tells you, “Don’t lie down on that couch, do something!” Or, when someone says to you, “you’re either with us, or against us,” your angel screams, “that’s a false dichotomy, schmuck!”

How good are you at listening to your lesser angel? Is that angel depressed right now? Or are you nurturing your angel?

Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).

And, of course

The sculpture is by Ron Mueck.