Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

and if, as well, you are keenly aware that the time of your time is runningout, then you will feel the need to seek the truth now as an urgent impulsein your life. Let businessmen and plowmen do whatever they must do, andlet others go on living without settling this matter for themselves, but this isnot our fate. Now is not the time for speaking falsely, especially to yourself.If you meditate on this song, you will realize that this dialogue is ofa very intimate nature. Indeed, this conversation between the joker and thethief is one that takes place in some form or other within the deep recessesof every man’s being, in the conscience. With the joker side of the self weare prone to think that we do not really know what’s going on in life andthat life is somehow unfair to us. We are apt to complain and feel sorry forourselves. The joker in short, is the wild card; he/she can be anyone; he/sheis the ordinary ego experiencing itself in isolation. The thief, on the otherhand, is the darker, more mysterious side of the self. He is an “outlaw” inthe Dylan sense: “to live outside the law you must be honest.” And it is thisthief speaking as the still, small voice of conscience, who speaks “kindly,”robbing the ego of its cherished illusion.The joker is the ego of illusion. He does not penetrate to the spiritualdepths where unity is experienced. The joker, wanting to be the highestcard in the deck, does not understand that he can only temporarily borrowthat designation which the ace—mysteriously the highest and the lowestsimultaneously—possesses as a primary quality. And even for it to be possiblefor the joker to act as an “ace,” the real ace must first exist. Nor can thejoker become a “little ace” without at the same time assuming that uncannyunity of highest and lowest. But this assumption requires the most intensehumility possible on the part of the joker. For only when the joker surrendershimself, perhaps from having heard the kindly spoken words of the thief,can he function as an ace. In any case, the power of the Ace becomes presentonly when the joker as joker evaporates from view. But the naturaltendency of the joker is to take life as a joke and to play frivolously with hisown great, though temporary, potential in the game of life. Most often, hewould be a knave or a deuce for the sake of simply winning a hand. Nexttime around he may be completely worthless.But enough of this abstract punning. The point is that there are twosides to the self for which Dylan has found intriguingly appropriate names.The joker represents that aspect of the self that is intellectually conscious ofitself in its separateness from all else. The thief on the other hand representsthat aspect of the self that is spiritually conscious of itself within the unity ofthe Great All. These two, the joker and the thief, are at odds with each other.240