COLUMN FROM THE EDITOR Nothing is certain but uncertainty. Life is an empty dream. Life is perhaps best regarded as a bad dream between two awakenings. . . . and then I woke up in a cold sweat. It seemed so real but it was obviously a dream, or was it? In the past year there have been many movies focused on an individual or society living in a false world: Dark City, The Truman Show, and The Matix. Western philosophy has tried, in several ways to determine what is real. How can we be sure all of this isn't an illusion? What if we are merely brains in a vat with all sorts of electrodes plugged into it which feed us electrical impulses designed to simulate reality? How do we know all of this isn't a dream? How can I be sure everyone I see on the street are really people with minds and not automatons. Maybe I am the only cognizant person on the planet, part of some weird alien experiment. I question all of this because I cannot satisfactorily find a solution. Descartes postulated an Evil Deceiver who actively prevents us from seeing the truth. With so many ways to be led away from the one and only Truth, how do I know which world I am currently observing. I say, rightly or wrongly (it doesn't matter as you will soon see) I get to chose my reality. Since any reality I choose may be equally flawed. I might as well select one that makes me happy. Thus, I choose a reality in which this view is the correct one. In this world, we are pushing forward into the darkness. Books and movies, the concept of the word itself as an agent of darkness seems to be the accidental thread that runs through our selection. Perhaps the conclusion that words and images are the most convenient way to convey darkness isn't exactly a brilliant one. A moment of hoping for a group unconscious perhaps is a hope to escape the abyss one slips into when focusing on issues revolving around the side of the human mind hidden from casual view. These things that all humanity prefers to pretend don't exist, do; and dealing with them on a daily basis sometimes makes one forget that life really isn't a horrid black hole of ennui. That really is the lesson that needs to be learned. It is a lesson of balance. I see Ariadne's Thread as an attempt for the standard person to leave behind their happen endings and spend a moment in the tragedy of life, to witness the horrors that melt the mind. This does not mean one should focus only on the tragedy, because it all loses meaning if we don't understand what pleasure and happiness is. Even in the darkest of times, when all hope is lost and the final doom is inevitable, there will still be something to smile about, something that makes that moment not all bad. Balance. Not all good. Not all bad. Balance. Because if we get lost in our dream worlds, if we cannot transcend, or somehow convince ourselves our fellow humans are actual intellectual beings instead of some sort of automatons, then we are lost . . . completely.
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