«THE OPINION OF THE BLIND»…
The problem of knowing the world, of knowing reality, is a vital necessity for every generation.
In today’s boundless, many-natured flow of information and in Armenia’s present conditions — all the more so and, especially, national self-knowledge is given importance…
It seemed that even the events of the last decades ought to have «opened the eyes» of many, helping to unmask the masked faces in today’s many-layered reality, to distinguish the true from the false…
Yet a considerable majority of people is groping in a widespread darkness.
There had been occasion, in one of my former notes, to mention one of the eastern fables that come from the depths of the centuries.
The content of the fable, in brief, is the following.
A group of blind men are brought to an elephant and told to try to guess, to understand, what it is that stands before them.
One feels the elephant’s leg and says — «It is a pillar».
Another takes hold of the tail and says — «It is a rope».
A third feels the trunk and says — «It is a snake».
Yet another touches the ear and says — «It is a fan».
Each of them is convinced that he is right, but in reality all of them see only the part, not the whole.
The principal meaning of the fable –
- Partial knowledge is not the whole truth:
Man often perceives only a fragment of reality and thinks that that is the whole truth. - Truth is many-sided:
Reality can be understood only by combining different viewpoints. - The meaninglessness of disputes, when no one admits the limitation of his knowledge:
People often argue because each has his limited experience and does not see the general picture (as the present political arena is — with its «figures» and the appraisals, the discussions unfolding around their activity)…
Behold the same fable — in Hovhannes Tumanyan’s rendering…
THE OPINION OF THE BLIND
(From the fables of the East)
In broad daylight
Three-four people
The blind men came
And ran against the elephant.
One, who touched the thick, terrible body,
— Hey, careful,- he cried,- there is a wall here.
The other, who had felt the leg before him—
— What wall,- he laughed,- this is a stump I think.
The third’s hand had fallen upon the trunk.
— It is a snake, a snake,- he roared,- why are you still standing.
While the fourth, holding the tail
Laughing ha-ha, was mocking them.
— Ah, you are truly blind. No one understood.
It is neither this nor that, but a hanging rope.
No, it is a wall,— no, a stump— no, it is a snake,— no, a rope…
And each one making a noise apart,
Just as they had come
And run against it,
So they turned back again blind-blind –
The elephant like a mountain — under the clear light.
the year 1909
