“The most confused we ever get is when we try to convince our heads of something our hearts know is a lie” Karen Moning.
If I had to use a one word to describe what is going on in the world at the moment I would use ‘Trust,’ or alternatively, the lack of it. We are being pushed even further into yet more separate camps by the Mainstream mass media (MSM) who just love to find ways to influence our beliefs to keep us in isolated little tribes that will not make any attempts to intercommunicate. Think about that word ‘trust’ and how much social contracts factor into our everyday lives at all levels. (Social contract theory is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.) When you drive down the road, you trust that everyone will obey the rules of the road to avoid the problems of cars colliding all the time. Of course, there are those that don’t and we have the inevitable accidents. But considering the tens of millions of vehicles on roads at any given time, accidents at the worst level are relatively uncommon –– lots of minor bumps though.
But it isn’t about what other people are doing, because most of them are doing what is expected according to our unspoken social contracts. Most of us live in a system where we give legitimacy to politicians, product manufacturers, and mass media, and in return expect and trust them to do what they do – although most no longer do it with integrity. Of course, we all know that when the almighty dollar (or your local currency) is the primary measure of success (I talk about this a lot throughout this blog, e.g., Imagination, Creativity, and Change 1 {March 2018}) then some level of corruption becomes normalized. But, overall, despite all the shortcomings of living in a global oligarchical corporatocracy, we maintain some level of trust in the systems process (no matter how much we might complain) to do what it should be doing to maintain our basic expectations of a standard of living.
Most people choose political affiliations that they think support their values, decide which media to listen to in order to stay informed, and which products we buy that will not harm us because they are regulated in some way. And all this is predicated on some level of trust in the authorities we accept as viable. Yet, we are lied to every day by these same authorities. Our governments are but puppets of a corporate global system that rapes us and the planet for its own benefit. Our environmental and ecological planetary health goes downhill, our economy is fixed to siphon money to the already uber-wealthy, our food system is designed to create health problems that link directly with the sick-care system. And it goes on and on in all aspects of our modern living. Yes, it seems good when we have the time and money to do what we want, but by all indicators over the past four decades, the standard of living has declined even as the technological marvels have overwhelmed us. And as for quality of life, it is also declining rapidly. None of this is happening quickly but over long periods of decades such that we have the Frog-in-Hot-Water story insidiously occurring.
The last two years however, have created another schism where even those levels of trust remaining have been solely tested, or have been totally lost altogether. Most know propaganda exists in some form with how politics is reported and how advertisers sell their wares, but to a major degree, we for some reason expect our trusted technocrats (e.g., healthcare leaders) to be on our side, because they are using science, which is supposed to be neutral. I for one have been disillusioned with science and health politics for many years – scientism and health politics has been manipulating that system for well over a century, if not longer (e.g., see earlier post Beliefs, Knowledge, Definitions- Different Truths {January 2018}). The shadowy figures that decide what happens with their plans work on decades long projections. We think we have social contracts, but the hierarchy doesn’t care with the contracts functioning mainly at the local level.
Trying to maintain trust over cynicism is not easy, but we try despite the constant contradictions we see every day. After all, we cling to our social contracts to avoid scenarios that resemble “Game of Thrones’ or ‘Hunger Games’ kinds of living – we’re civilized after all, aren’t we? Science is supposed to be a mode of enquiry, but in the last 2 years has become an oppressive authoritarian structure in which questions, the very basis of science, are discouraged, and even prohibited within certain topic areas. This extreme censorship shows to me clearly that we have now crossed the Rubicon and that trust has been ripped societies in two – the true believers (I recommend Eric Hoffer’s book on the topic) who still trust the MSM and the rest who see it more and more for the manipulating system it has always been. Philosopher, Matthew B. Crawford nailed it when he said what we are witnessing is the suspension of common sense. Many in society can no longer apply reason, experience and intuition – these people have become sheep being led to conclusions that the authorities give them. We are increasingly witnessing the extension of ‘expert jurisdiction’ when it comes to science and who is allowed to disseminate information – the new appointed high priests of our modern age.
I have several higher degree qualifications, meaning that I read and learned a lot, first broadly, then narrowly in a specific set of disciplines. I am nothing special, for a lot of people can gain as much knowledge as I have gained without having to go to university and take exams, which merely sanction that I learned what the professors think I should have learned according to their knowledge base. Of course, in academia that had to fit what I could justify and how my thinking was derived from legitimately accepted data sources – at least at the PhD level. I like to think that I had a unique education, that coupled with my own nerdiness, allowed me to think critically and broadly without restrictions on what I was thinking. I read many alternative sources, even ones I may disagree with, in order to be as informed as I can be (fits my Pyrrhonism kind of thinking – see my post about Skepticism {January 2018}). I describe myself as a dot connector. I take a big picture view and then zoom down to detail and then back out again seeing patterns connecting the dots where others see randomness. Yet, at times I find that I feel alone in my conclusions since few people seem interested in listening. Crying out that ‘the Emperor has no clothes’ merely gets you ridiculed and worse. We like to watch movies that show these absurdities but refuse to acknowledge they are present in our everyday realities.
Sadly, I think that we are so used to lies, that to not believe them would drive us crazy. This has been our ‘civilized path’ for hundreds of years if not millennia. But we know from studies of indigenous peoples that this is not the normal human condition. It’s not that people never lie in those cultures, but there are consequences for lying, and the whole culture polices themselves and finds solutions that benefit the whole community instead of just punishing the perpetrators. My greatest gift is optimism coupled with a healthy realism. It’s patience that is the most irritating aspect. I want to help create a new and better world now, but everything comes in its own timing.
“People ask me, why is it so hard to trust people? The real question is, why is it so hard for people [especially our authorities] to tell the truth?” Anon
To Be Continued …………….
0 Comments