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37 A truth as unchanging and permanent as your desire to consider no conflicting opinion,
38 And no truer truth exists if it allows you to stop thinking about anything at all, especially the fears and failures of your own private life.
39 aBy the same token, if one of you believes that all the virtue ever created on this earth resides in the noble savages who have so far failed to partake of the accursed bounties promised by the two Most Chosen Evil Empires on Earth, then that too is truth,
40 And ample reason to direct all your energies away from thinking about your own miseries toward the paradise that would exist if the Others could only get their rights.
41 But I urge you not to delve too deeply into the inconsistencies between these two great truths,
42 Both of which I myself believe with heart-pounding conviction, if I may say so,
43 Because the search for consistency can become a thoughtful quest,
44 bWhich is dangerous in the extreme,
45 For if you once embark upon it, the ultimate price is self-examination,
46 cWhich may lead you to ask yourself, "How is it that I believe in racial equality, and yet stay up half the night worrying when I hear a rumor that blacks may buy the house next door?"
a.Pnot.54.1-5
b.Wil.35.1-3
c.Brd.6.1-10
d.Main.27.1-17
e.Ira.25.24-25
f.Wil.31.3
g.Vin.62.6
h.Grk.19.2
i.Wil.33.5-9
47 Or: "How is it that I believe so devoutly in the imperative for personal initiative and risk-taking embedded in the capitalist system,
48 d"And yet ruthlessly suppress all initiative and risk-taking in myself and the frightened little capitalist drones who report to me every day?"
49 As you value me and the word of my way, I beseech you to invoke the curse of consistency and the myth of contradictions only when it offers you the most immediate and superficial egratification,
50 But do not make of these delusions an altar to sacrifice yourself upon,
51 fFor the perils of thought are unbounded.
52 Does that resolve your conflict?
53 And when Harry had finished, the elder of the two men cocked an eye at Harry and said, "How is it that you speak so persuasively of not thinking about anything at all,
54 "And yet show every evidence of having thought a great deal about many many things?"
55 Then Harry smiled at the man and said, gAs you may suspect, I have thought about a great many things,
56 One time for each thing,
57 hAnd I have been satisfied by my answers,
58 iWhich means that I need not think about them anymore;