Oh how far from the truth that image is.
But to childhood through mid-20s me, that was the reality and that probably reflects well upon my parents. And although untrue, it is certainly an image that children need to have of their parents...as long as those parents and adults in their life are upstanding and intelligent enough to carry the burden. Mine were and thank god for that.
Another truth I've come to realize as false is that everything I was taught in childhood and especially in school was true. In science in 8th grade, Mrs Vallow and our approved science books taught us that electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom in certain increments. This was fact. Now I find out, only because I sought the information out on my own, that this is not a fact but rather the widely accepted atomic theory.
Think about that for a moment. Seems rather unimportant, doesn't it? Unless you're a quantum theorist or a physicist, the structure of an atom means nothing to you. And you would be, for all intents and purposes, correct. It is not the structure of the atom that catches my attention and gives me pause. It is that we were given a theory as a fact and were not offered the opportunity to understand that it was open for discussion. Just like the subject content, the atom, this occurrence registers on the nanoscale of life experience and I would not judge you if you continued to wonder what significance it holds.
The significance of both is shown in numbers; great numbers. Two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen gets you a molecule of water. Water is significant. One atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen gets you a molecule of carbon dioxide: a gas you exhale in every breath. Now take away just one atom of oxygen in your carbon dioxide and what do you get? Carbon monoxide - a gas that is colorless, odorless and deadly. That one atom is no longer so insignificant, is it? The significance comes from the atom's role as a foundation for something larger: a molecule. And, again, one single molecule is nothing unless it is grouped with others.
This idea of one joining with others to become something larger is itself a truth in our society. "There is power in numbers" they say and indeed, that is a fact, down to our very molecules. It's a fact that we apply on a nanoscale, microscale, a macroscale and every other physical scale we have. Somehow, though, the idea is often overlooked on a psychoscale. (I probably just made that word up...)
Note that I said "often overlooked" because it is certainly the subject of many psychological and philosophical studies. In fact, I just purchased a book on the psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler that focuses on many of the seemingly insignificant occurrences in his life that made him who he was. His view of reality was developed over time from his atomic experiences. 56years of atomic experiences later and 17 million people were dead.
But how often do we, the psychological laymen, give thought to our atomic experiences? How frequently do we adopt the process of "Question Everything"? No matter how intelligent, open-minded or skeptical you are, chances are you probably only recently, as I have, started to question things. Most have only begun to question new truths or things overtly up for discussion. What the majority of people fail to realize is how their entire view of the world and how "things are" is based upon the innumerable atomic experiences they have collected since birth. They notice the macro experiences and perhaps the micro but the existence of atomic experiences remains unknown to them, even though it is the foundation upon which their whole idea of reality is built.
That's a staggering idea.
Would you buy a house for your family without having any idea what kind of foundation it's built on? if you showed up to the open house and the entire ground around the house was covered by a tarp and the realtor said "Don't worry. The house appears stable so there's no reason to worry about the foundation or the earth beneath it" would you just take their word for it? Of course you wouldn't. That would be LUDICROUS. But that is what you and I do on a daily basis. We assume things are the way they are because we see nothing to prove otherwise. And when someone challenges our idea of reality, they are labeled as "crazy". When they challenge on a grande scale, they are labeled a "conspiracy theorist".
The Illuminati, the Knights Templar, 9/11 being planned and executed by the American government, Area 51...conspiracy theories. Why? Because they challenge what is widely accepted as reality. In all honesty, there is a great case for the "why not" argument of all of them. This is why I have been labeled a conspiracy theorist by many. And it's not that I particularly believe in the theories themselves, it is that I believe in the possibility of the fallible nature of my personal reality. I realize that the structure of an atom is not the only theory in life that was presented to me as fact and then used to build a foundation for other truths. And it is not my fellow humans' inability to believe as I do that bothers me, but their unwillingness to question when the reasons to do so are right in front of them.
Every day when you turn on the radio or TV or open a newspaper or news article online, greed is there. Hatred is there. Selfishness is there. They are in bold print and accompanied by pictures, advertisements and sensationalism. We see a picture of a bombed building or a kidnapped child and we know there is evil in this world. Then why is it that we refuse to believe that this same evil may exist in places we have previously labeled without evil in our reality? Why are we resistant to the idea that just because they wear suits, smile for the camera, kiss babies that they cannot be evil men wielding ink-tipped swords when they hide behind their golden doors?
Because if that is true, then every truth with that fallacy as a foundation becomes unstable and we cannot handle the burden of rebuilding our realities since doing so would leave us in a reality limbo where everything MUST be questioned. Instead we perpetuate the nicer, cleaner, less complicated version of reality so we do not have to live in a constant state of uncertainty.
You've built a reality of what you believe is carbon dioxide but it has one less oxygen atom than you've been told and unless you actively seek it out, the colorless, odorless reality is going to kill you.
SEEK:
Money is Slavery By ProxyThe collapse of the American Dream: The truth behind the Federal Reserve and money
