It was probably nearly 40 years ago -- another life, in lots of ways -- that I first read about 'the elephant in the room' concept and wondered what this was. I think I found the reference in a book by Idries Shah, long since dead but a thoughtful writer of the times who helped tell me about sufism.
Sufism in case you didn't know has been subsumed by a certain religion, claiming that as they noticed it was already in existence it was therefore theirs to do with as they wish. Numerous islamists will shriek, as they are won't to do, that everything is the creation of their mindset and who am I to argue? After all, nothing existed before about the sixth century AD, as we are slowly being educated to accept.
Anyway sufism was brought to my attention by Idries Shah and I enjoyed reading the aphorisms and stories of the sufis, especially those of Nasruddin who as a 'wise fool' always saw what was going on behind the mask and the truth of life. He was also funny, which helps enormously. But the one thing I couldn't get my head round was the idea of this elephant stood in the middle of the room and no one could grasp what it was. Instead, experts fussed around the edges and into the corners either ignoring the obvious or making great pronouncements if they discovered say, the tail of the creature, or the foot.
They argued skilfully and ingeniously, but no had a conclusive idea what this was. One way or another, they couldn't stand back and see it.
Being a naive young person I thought this was a flight of fancy too far. It couldn't be true in modern Britain, I said. We had come through change and wars, the building up and subsequent loss of power, the ability to create and make things that would help people, offered the world the basis of a fair legal system and along the way provided some of its best literature. Britain had through all sorts of events gained experience and wisdom.
Our great and good leaders now entrusted with safeguarding this glorious tradition, and specially chosen by this wonderful thing called democracy which naturally brought the very best to the top and allowed those exalted ones to gently and wisely rule our lives -- apart from the places where a donkey painted red would get elected to parliament -- would see all. They would not fail to see any elephants in the room. How, I argued to myself, could those educated and superior people not ever see what was in front of them?
If there was a fat elephant filling the room, they would notice. I could trust them.
So I read more books on sufism and some of it made sense, some of it didn't, but as always Nasruddin's clownish-actions-but-accurate-observations made me smile. Wisdom had a sense of humour, I was relieved to discover. However, there was still the elephant in the room.
Here's the rub: either we started to elect the wrong people to the job of guiding us or the elephant came with stunning camouflage. Or perhaps our great and good leaders stopped feeling and searching. Maybe the corners were far more fascinating. Perhaps, as Paul Simon sang about seeing "angels in the architecture" that turned out to be a lot more rewarding. I mean, you could stand, mouth agape, looking up at the wonder of it all and save yourself turning round and shrieking with horror at this big thing threatening to crush you.
So, without naming elephants, it's time to admit we have some big ones packing into our limited room. These islands, some might say, do not a lot of room right now to offer. Whatever; these all-too-obvious massive forms are there but are being ignored. Issues are being skirted round and no one in power is in a position to say "Dear God, what is this thing blocking the light?" Even if one of these creatures treads on someone's foot there are a multitude of excuses either that the elephant didn't mean it, or it isn't all the elephant's feet doing it or it was an accident and treading happens. Get over it and move on round the edges. Look at the architecture and see angels instead. Hey peasants, we do it and look at us: we rule!
Yes, they rule, and don't we know it. And with all that power comes the ability to avoid looking down or turning around because then they will have to do something about all these elephants. The ones we the ordinary people might see but they refuse to notice at all.
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