While we tend to enjoy fiction, we often fail to focus on the truth or facts behind it.  The true fact is that fiction and reality may hold the same truths.  Each deserve questioning and exploration. We may see these matters in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy (available on Amazon.com) and in  our day to day lives.

 

Questioning Truth and Reality

I’ve posted previously about my friend from graduate school Nikolai Khokhlov. Let me now enhance what I learned.

Let me review. One day at Duke University I was introduced to a new graduate student by the name of Nicolai.  His heavy Russian accent was intriguing.  Later it came  out that he had been the head of the Russian KGB for Eastern Europe.  Finally, after much searching, he defected. His story is dramatic and sad as our intelligence service  was to rescue his family and take them out of the country when he went on Radio Free Europe to announce his defection. Our people failed him and he lost his family forever.  Later when he was in Germany, Russian Intelligence poisoned him with a radioactive substance.  He survived.

The Truth Is Spoken

Then there is another part.  One evennig Nicolai talked at length about his experiences. He spoke his conclusions about propaganda and political intelligence.  He said,  “You think it is like, James Bond.  It is, in fact like Get Smart.”

(For the younger generation, Get Smart was a television show that satirized intelligence services.)

Nicolai’s words continue to resonate with me. Especially in our current political environment.  What we are seeing often displayed is incompetence, disregard for country and corruption among many  other things.  The display to the world is embarrassing.

How are We To Assess What Nicolai Shared?

NiKolai’s story resonates in this campaign. We may dismiss the process as a form of comic opera or are we seeing life as it is?  Many of us are shocked at what we are seeing, but is the truth that this was there all along and we have not seen or experienced it this openly?

Get smart was meant to be funny but what we are seeing now is often stunning but hardly funny.  Or is it that we should be honest with ourselves and that we are seeing fundamental truths bout humanity?  It is sobering to realize that these kind of political beings were there all along and we need to attend to the fact of their existence and assess it more deeply.  The recognitions should be uplifting and useful.

Remember, Nikolai’s job was to safeguard the underbelly of the Soviet Union in Europe. He was to gather intelligence, kill people if necessary and build an underlying defense force for his country.  In the end he felti t was all a lie and his job violated his sense of humanity.  And so he followed the guidance of his conscience. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had more politicians with  his integrity?

Another Form of a Reality Show

The lesson for us is that this is not comic opera.  It is reality and is often dysfunctional and displays the faults and frailties of humanity in their worst forms.  We may laugh or accept it but often should cry  at what is  revealed. We will see ourselves for who we are including our vulnerability and what is lurking under the surface?  That in itself, is valuable.

Get Smart was for fun but as is often the case with comedy, it displays lessons to which we need to attend,  Again, we come back to our view of reality.  We have to decide how we interpret the events of this season and what we do with it is another matter.  And to me Nicolai is a role model. Is it up to us collectively to bring this under control?