Knowledge is a process, not an answer. When you know HOW to think, you are empowered beyond those who only know WHAT to think (Neil DeGrasse Tyson). A mind that takes in every scrap of garbage tossed at it is like an open mouth takes in flies, mosquitoes, and other trash. Much of modern education is about which pieces of trash the elites want you to eat. Many educators, such as David Orr, Chet Bowers, etc… tell us that we need to think differently about what an education should be doing for us. An open mind does not filter out everything but is very discerning and willing to ponder ideas not part of the mainstream, while an ‘educated’ person simply uses filters to keep out what they perceive as trash without any discernment as to its potential validity, or not. I begin with this because I will begin to challenge cherished beliefs. UNLEARNING is transformative change and is challenging because people not only must think about new knowledge, but also must ‘unlearn’ unconscious beliefs, assumptions, practices, and values about the very nature of the universe in which they live. If you challenge the status quo you are labeled as a lunatic and discredited. This leads me to SCIENTISM: an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in medicine, the sciences, philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities). When we get good research that doesn’t fit the normal accepted frame of thinking, then it is quickly ad readily marginalized by the mainstream.
Sometimes new disconfirming information exists that seems reasonable, like James Loewen (Lies my Teacher Told me) who exposed the contradictions of real American history from that told in American high school text books. But often, the truth goes way beyond what we readily can see. A war of propaganda exists to keep us thinking correctly. So what else are we to believe without question or to discard as false simply because it doesn’t fit our beliefs? DOCTRINE: A principle or body of principles presented for unquestioning acceptance or belief, by a religious, political, scientific, or philosophic group. In a scene from the film “The Truman Show” an interviewer asks the shows director how Truman can accept the ridiculous reality he lives within on this humongous stage. The answer is simply, “We accept reality as it is presented to us.”
Found on the ‘American Loons’ site, this quote from Michael Ellner (a controversial naturopathic M.D. – square brackets my additions). Everything about our world is inverted and totally at odds with who we really are and want to be. “Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health [though sick-care systems complicit with drug companies]. Lawyers [and judges] destroy justice [by enforcing laws that have no compassion]. Universities destroy knowledge [focus on what to think not how to think]. Governments destroy freedom [solving problems that create more problems to keep us ‘safe’ and toeing the line]. Media destroy information [highly controlled junk to keep us complacent]. And religions destroy spirituality [indoctrinate us for individuation].” Whether you agree or not, what Ellner did was simply speak differently from the status quo. The status quo believers ridicule him, as they do many others. Follow the money and power trail down the rabbit hole and ……… WHO BENEFITS MOST?
I often asked students that if they time travelled back to the Renaissance, how they would convince Leonardo Da Vinci that electricity was real using 1500 technology? You might be able to write all the math you like to impress him, but how would you actually show him to convince him? We have a lot of phenomena that exist but as yet, we have no instrumentation or even understanding to begin measuring them. And even if you do come out with something that makes sense, you can still be an outcast. One such person was Peter Mitchell who created the Glynn Research lab that conducted research out of a big house in Cornwall. His work was groundbreaking but the scientific community disliked it because it wasn’t done in a ‘proper’ place like a university. The lab revealed the chemiosmotic mechanism of ATP synthesis and went on to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979. There is a lot of good research being done today but the tight corporate control of the various sciences often mainstreams or marginalizes what is accepted or rejected. And why do we have such blatant prejudices – simple word, FEAR. For one reason or another we fear what doesn’t conform to our belief systems or what conflicts with our beliefs in general, or simply because it affects profits and control.
Start asking questions and see to who is refusing to listen because the belief structures are challenged or the control structure is challenged!! Most people believe what they believe with the very best of intentions, but the true controllers have no compassion whatsoever and will twist and destroy everything to remain in control and keep the world negative. The Collins English Dictionary states: “A conspiracy theory is a belief that a group of people are secretly trying to harm someone or achieve something.” The term suggests strongly that the conspiracy is therefore highly unlikely and such conspiracists simply nutcases. When anything comes up that doesn’t meet the norms of the status quo or the accepted consensus, it is labeled as a conspiracy theory – discredit what doesn’t fit regardless of how much verifiable data there may be. For instance, in the next two examples: argue that Monsanto technology and the global corporation does what it does because it wants to help humanity and is therefore beneficial. Or to show how it works across the spectrum, try denying Climate Change with data that contradicts the environmentally accepted norm. Try disagreeing publicly with either and see what responses you get from the mainstream. Nothing quite like inconvenient data to any belief system to cause COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. It is always good to recall Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character,” How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890).
Now a scene from “The Matrix.” The Blue pill for blissful Ignorance and continued Business as Usual in this dystopian world, or the Red pill for the Painful Truth and desire to change things. Which one will you now take because with the red pill, we will begin to eliminate the impossible set of stories that we take for normality?
0 Comments