See my friend the snake in the picture? The snake probably doesn't like pole sitting much and the barbed wire probably is very irritating. The alternative (these are Australian flood photos) is swimming for it which has an unlikely outcome. Point is, that his (assuming he is a "he" snake) choices are reduced to sink or swim. Mr. snake lives in a stay or die world and his choices are also akin to a light switch - on or off - a purely yes or no existence.
Now Mr. O'Reilly is a smart guy. He can call a co-worker for phone sex and come up with an almost endless set of imaginative things to do. According to her, about $8 million worth of imaginative things. He can also look at the tides and see God's work and ignore science...tides roll in and tides roll out but there is no explanation for it that he can see.
Like the snake, Mr. O'Reilly's world is a yes or no place. You are either in the light or in the shadow and never partially lit or partially dark. It is a simple world without nuance. It is also a shame.