Alan Watts - An Implicit Agreement

Let's hope Watts is right on this one...

     Duality is always secretly unity.  Take the contrast between the words we use: explicit and implicit – very valuable words.  What is explicit, what’s on the outside, let’s say how we come on publicly.  Explicitly, we are thus and so, we have a fight, we’re in competition – say in business – explicitly.   But implicitly, we’ve worked this out.  We’ve agreed in a secret way that nobody knows about that this competition is extremely valuable to both of us.  Take it politically, for example, let’s take the situation of Russia versus the United States.  Explicitly, in public, this has to be a big fight.  These two ways of life, these two ideologies are opposed, the say, “Brrrrrrrr!” You know, “We’re...Argghh!”  But behind the scenes, it’s all been carefully worked out – you bet it has.  That this opposition has to happen, because our economy depends on it, and their economy depends on it, and everybody knows this who’s smart, but there are a lot of people who get taken in by the propaganda, and they should be taken in because that makes the thing work.  It’s crazy, but that’s the way it goes…

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Transcribed from the Alan Watts lecture titled, An Implicit Agreement, part of the Out of Your Mind Lecture Series.