Peasant Logic

Reading and watching Wise Blood, I was reminded a lot of my time living in a Greek village as a boy. Hazel Moates, in the novel has a sort of uneducated wisdom and logic that I can appreciate. A quality a lot of the older men and women in the village shared.

When he is told by his grandfather that Jesus died for his sins he comes to the decision that ‘the only way to keep Jesus away is to not sin. So I just won’t sin.”

He may be missing the preacher’s point but his logic is flawless. He does not see Jesus as a font of love. He sees Jesus as a punishment. If he sins, Jesus will be unhappy with him, so therefore he would rather just be ignored than have to stand accusation.

I remember speaking to my grandfather once, he was telling me the story about the time he killed a snake. It had appeared in the rows between the vines. Not a very poisonous snake but its bite would hurt like crazy and the fact that the closest doctor was a long walk down a mountain and over to the coast, infection would not be fun. I looked up at him with wonder in my eyes, ‘So how did you kill it, Papouli?’

“Kill it?’ he replied, ‘why would I bother risking my health. Snakes only hang around when it’s warm. I just went and had a siesta until it got colder later in the afternoon.’

To stay away from the snake just don’t do anything that will attract its attention.

This concept of uneducated wisdom also brings to mind something that I once read about Scientology. Scientology is aimed at people with an overabundance of imagination but not very much education to help harness it and aid in analysis rather than free-form daydreaming. This is why so many actors go to Scientology eg. Tom Cruise, John Travolta. They are uneducated ‘artists’. They want something to use their imagination on but never had any form of release for it other than their acting.

This, I believe, is why Hazel Moates does not want to be a preacher, why ‘(He doesn’t) believe in anything.’ (pp20) He has too much logic going through his head for such ‘nonsense’. If Jesus will get you if you sin just don’t sin. Why do you need a bible for that? I appreciate the logical simplicity of this mindset. I fondly call this ‘peasant logic’. I come from two lines of proud, hard-working peasants. Just because I have gotten the chance to get an education doesn’t mean that when I injure myself I don’t immediately cause as much pain to the injured area as possible so that the adrenaline kicks in quicker and I can keep doing what I’m doing, no matter how many times doctors call me an idiot. Rand would be proud, if only she wasn’t so caught up in her hating.