W as there ever a task so large that any attempt to accomplish it was certainly doomed to fail?

That has been my task.

One must have knowledge of the complex goal at hand and of the complex methods of achieving it.

Immediately the general response to the endeavor is, "It is a fool's errand".

 

What if someone had in their hand a plain brown package that could:

First of all, just by showing the package, without my saying a word, 50% of people launch into stories of how, at one time, they had a package that kind-a looked like that one and then commence to drone on and on about some obscure event. Then, satisfied that they had relived and relayed to you their story, they forget that you had showed them the package in the first place and never inquire as to why you showed it to them.

Another large percentage would berate and insult the package for not being all gussied up with neon signs, fireworks and a major media campaign with CGI, AI, smiling human mannequins on vacation in some exotic location.

Another percentage will say that they have done extensive research on small plain packages, they have googled it, and seen videos on youtube, and put it in as a keyword in their news aggregator feeds.

A massive anti-plain-package conspiracy network industry with ardent followers will develop. These ardent followers will busy themselves obtaining weapons in order to defend against the dangers of the plain brown package as the immenent destroyer of their freedom and thus would be willing to die in the defense thereof.

--- Now imagine that this package was opened. ---

I am from planet Earth. As far as we know, it is the only place in the universe with life. Earth is so perfectly placed in its position in the cosmos that the coincident events to put it here are at least trillion-to-one odds. (but that's not good enough for us). The possibility of life, even in its most rudimentary forms, further expands those odds. The possibility of an evolution into a "self-aware" self-examining being expands those odds into an unfathomable incomprehensible number (but that's not good enough for us).

Instead, we spend our time looking for faults. Rarely, if ever, do we admit that the fault may be with ourselves.

An example of a Brown Package:

I am reminded of Marvin Gaye(s). In his father's eyes, Marvin Sr., MarvinJr. never met his personal expectations. Sr. was a cross-dressing preacher who meted out an unrelenting series of brutal whippings on the young Jr. After Jr. escaped the household, and found his way to Motown, no amount of achievement was suitable for Sr., so the berating continued. Marvin tried throughout his life to please the unpleasable father. Marvin bought his father a beautiful house and a Cadillac, of which the father berated as being the fruits of evil. Marvin even bought his father a gun with which to defend himself. On April 1, 1984 after a series of family arguments about an insurance policy, Sr. entered Marvin's room and shot him twice and killed him with the gun Marvin had bought for him. Gaye Sr. often told his children "I brought you into this world, I can take you out".

Marvin earned the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul". Many institutions have posthumously bestowed Gaye with awards and other honors including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and inductions into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1990, Gaye received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked Gaye No. 18 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", sixth on their list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and number 82 on their list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time". Q magazine ranked Gaye sixth on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers".

All of these achievements and accolades were not good enough to please his father. I do believe that Marvin Gaye's lifelong ambition to please his stiff-necked father, one of Jr.'s primary missions in life, met with dismal failure, so much so that Marvin Gaye himself would believe that in spite of his accomplishments, that he was a failure.

My experience is that we all trend toward Marvin Sr.'s unremitting attitude about anything and everything.

So why would I want to get involved in any project that opens up this nasty can of worms? It is my assigned task. It is our assigned task...

to open the package!