One of the characters in “Fellwater 2” (which I finished writing about a fortnight ago) makes the following statement:
One of these days, you will wake up and realise the people don’t want knowledge or enlightenment. What they want is validation. And that is what I provide! People want to be told that whatever they already believe, no matter how silly, is the truth. They want forgiveness for their sins, success for their endeavours, and the admiration of others. But they don’t want to change their lives to earn those things. And they don’t want to be told that they’re wrong, and they don’t want to be told what to do. They want to be told that what they are already doing is all that they have to do, and nothing more. Look at the kind of people we recruit into the organization. Petty artists, eco-activists, old hippies, perpetual college students, all singing to the wind about the moral superiority of their lifestyles. Bottom-feeders, that’s what they really are! See how they scrape a living for themselves by selling painted seashells and demanding their entitlements. Bottom-feeders! But they, too, have their pride, and whoever validates their pride will hold them in the palm of his hand.
Well, friends, is the speaker right? Or wrong? Or partially both? What do you think?