In one sense I guess you could say that I have always been stuck with the secrets of the universe. I have a very roundabout way of arriving at obvious conclusions. Many years after the postmodern age started, I began to figure out that anything could be argued with. I didn’t know how you could make a logical and acceptable argument against EVERYTHING… yet. So I formed the school of ‘Nonproductive Reasoning,’ which sought to explain the pointlessness of human reasoning THROUGH human reasoning! The very mission statement itself should have been enough for me to dust my hands off and say in satisfied manner that my work here was done.

Over time I whittled the list of rules for NPR from close to a dozen to something like three. They basically went that (1) the universe is infinite, (2) Our perception is limited and (3) to every rule there is an exception.

I guess the main difference between NPR and postmodernism is that NPR still assumes that there is one universe (albeit complex and multifaceted) and that there is one ‘truth’ that sums up all of existence, whereas postmodernism assumes that there is one or more universes PER OBSERVER, and that each sentient being creates their own personal universe THROUGH their perceptions.

This may be a selfish point of view, but it kind of makes sense if you look at it long enough. So in the end it kind of all comes down to whether or not there is an Ultimate Observer. Since no one person can view all things, we are each limited to the half-truths and bits of reality we can figure out from what little we see and know. My pet rabbit’s universe is made up of his cage, whatever he can see out of his tiny door, and the food and water that occasionally get changed. It’s a simple universe, but I figure his small brain can handle THAT much. I consider myself to be a superior observer to my rabbit, and my world includes more abstract things such as, well, a pretty good understanding of postmodernism and the concept of a fictitious class of warriors called Jedi. But, of course, I know little to nothing about the atmospheric conditions surrounding Neptune, and if there happen to be angels and demons fighting some spiritual battle through the sky right now I haven’t the foggiest notion what the score is. Yet I know more (in theory) about both of the above things than I do about the political climate in Turkey right now. Point being, my universe is pretty limited as well. In comparison to all the potential knowledge that exist throughout time and space, I might as well climb into the cage with my rabbit because I am just as ignorant and small minded as he is.

But lets say that there is an observer OUTSIDE the universe. This somebody is capable of seeing everything throughout time and space from the minute to the super cosmic, and how it all plays out together. If such a Being existed, then there would be an ultimate truth, a universe that includes ALL things. This is pretty much what NPR concludes.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2004 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.