I don't care what you think, Pratchett is my Hero.

So, my possibly imagined reader, this week in my Creating Reality (CR) course, we talked about whether or not such a thing as Truth or Beauty was real. Throughout this entire week, this one scene from one of my favorite books has been playing through my head. The book is called The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett. This book centered around Susan, the Granddaughter of Death (The anthropormic idea of death) trying to save her worlds version of Santa Claus, called the Hogfather. At the end, she has a meaningful conversation with her Grandfather about why humans must believe in the Hogfather and other beings such as the Tooth Fairy.

Here is an excerpt (Death is the one who speaks in capital letters):

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET— Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

You can also watch the clip of this scene from the movie adaptation here. (Very funny and dramatic. I highly recommend watching the entire movie)

       Pratchett brings up an interesting idea, which is: Humans, in order to function in life, and live to their fullest capabilities, need fantasies, need these lies like justice, mercy, and things such as right and wrong in order to function. Can a human be a human without the idea of mercy, or justice, or good, or evil? He completely dismisses the idea that such things actually exist independent of the mind and goes on to believe that this willingness to create such concepts is what causes humanity to live to their fullest. I agree with this idea. Although there might not be justice except in our mind, it is what heightens our status beyond the 'base animal' level. What do you guys think? Can we be human without these concepts we make up to function every day?