It’s always fascinated me how people can believe something that’s not true, and then get angry if you challenge them on it. After all, we’re all deluded. Each and every one of us. Don’t believe me? OK, check this out. You are more than likely sitting down right now. On a chair, stool, couch, whatever. It’s resting on a floor. The floor is part of a building. The building is on the ground which is part of your city. None of those things, except you, are moving, correct?
Wrong.
The city is in a country, which is on a land mass which is moving. The land mass is on a planet which is spinning. At the equator the spin is 1,038 miles per hour. At the poles it’s barely spinning at all. And the planet on which we rest is circling the sun at 67,000 miles per hour (30 kilometers a second). Our solar system is moving in our galaxy at 490,000 miles per hour or 220 kilometers per second. So what we perceive as stillness isn’t anything of the kind. If you think you are sitting still, you are deluded.
Many people are aware our planet is spinning and is moving through space, but we ignore it because we don’t see it happening. So we block it out of our minds. And then we kind of forget it.
We focus on our immediate environment. And to us, that makes up our reality. We try not to think about all the other things going around us.
How can wars half way around the world be real if we can’t see it with our own eyes? Well, we do get to see them on TV and in movies. But someone decides which footage and sound bites we get. And that can easily affect what we perceive as the “real” story of the war. The truth is often manipulated for us by the media and Hollywood. And that has colored many people’s world views.
Some reporter tells us “the news” from a safe hotel where all the NGO peeps like to hang out at the bar. They all sit around and rationalize what the story on the ground is, even though none of them really get out much. Let’s face it, a lot of people are lazy and a lot of people are cowards. And they’re the ones telling us what the “truth” is.
And look at the science reporting we get. We’re told that the earth is heating up and soon the oceans will drown the coasts when the glaciers and polar ice caps melt. Except they ignored massive amounts of ice still there. All the species are dying off. Except we keep discovering hundreds of new species all the time. But let’s face it, nature has a habit of killing off plenty of life on its own. It did that long before mankind was born.
Every decade they find some disaster that will kill us and never does. So they invent a new one. In the 50s it was nuclear war. The 60s, DDT and overpopulation. The 70s, global cooling, air pollution and we’ve run out of oil. The 80s, the ozone hole. The 90s, Y2K! Now it’s global warming.
We like to believe we understand our world, or at least that part of it that concerns us. But the truth is, we know so little. What we see is limited. What we hear is limited. What we smell is limited. Animals can smell and hear better than us. We know that, but we choose not to think about it. We focus on what we think effects us.
We choose to block out that which we don’t want to know about. We choose to ignore what doesn’t jibe with our version of the truth. We choose to see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear. It makes us feel safer, more in control. Because if we really knew all that was going on around us it might drive us mad. We’re crazy enough already.
And there are those who take advantage of this. They’ve developed a science in directing us. Manipulating us. They use it to make us march to their tune. To make us get angry on cue. Fearful on cue. They make us think their lies are our ideas. They make us think that they’re the reasonable ones, and the other guys are evil fools. Then they laugh because there really isn’t a lot that separates their party from the other party. Just some window dressing.
Look at the last 10-20 years. Do you really believe Republicans act like conservatives or Democrats act like liberals? Ok, forget the word act. Because that’s the operative word here. Did they perform the way they are “supposed to”? If you’re a Republican, I’ll bet your party upset you more than once. And if you’re a Democrat, I’ll bet the same thing.
Is that really a coincidence?
In these times, it’s really important not to run on autopilot anymore. The politicians have steered us and lead our nation to a cliff’s edge. Neither party could have done it without some consent of the other.
In spite of all their tricks and games, they really don’t know what they’re doing. Like the rest of us, they don’t see the big picture. They chose to ignore the real danger signs. They choose to shut their ears to the angry screams of the pubic. They chose to tell us what we want to hear instead. And try to bribe us with our own money in the form of “stimulus” and “benefits”. Funny, but when someone steals my wallet, I don’t consider it a benefit if they hand me a dollar back.
They want us to go with the flow. Keep our heads down. Trust in their wisdom. They want us to believe they are hope personified. That change is a good thing.
They can keep the change.
Reality is all that matters. All your opinions and theories are dust in the face of reality. Reality really doesn’t care if you think raising taxes and increasing government power is going to stimulate the economy. History says otherwise. History has shown the folly of such ways. Socialist countries only succeeded when they chucked socialism, not embraced it. China and India didn’t become economic powerhouses when they embraced Marxist principles. They succeeded when they abandoned them. America didn’t become more successful when they expanded the size of government and increased spending beyond our means. We went into decline.
Reality is a harsh teacher. Ask anyone over the age of 40. Because reality has kicked them. It starts slapping you around and pushing you like a schoolyard bully the older you get.
But politicians like to insulate themselves from reality. They like to use our money to fly in private jets while lecturing us on “carbon footprints,” to eat in fancy restaurants while lecturing us on our diets, to hire staffers so they can ignore our emails and calls. They want to tell us what reality is, but most of them are more deluded than we are. Most of us have to deal with reality, even though we’re often afraid to look it in the eye.
Frankly, we’re tired of being told what reality looks like by people who have no idea. People, like those reporters who sit in the green zone and tell us what Iraq’s “really like.” People like the screenwriters and filmmakers who preach to us their “reality” through their one-sided films and shows. People like the journalists whose political leanings have blinded their ability to see the truth.
It’s up to us to tell them. It’s up to us to remind them who pays their bills. We buy their products. We watch their shows. We got them elected.
They work for us. And we’re tired of their patronizing drivel. We’re the boss, not they.
And if they don’t get hip to reality fast, they’re going to find out what it really looks like up close and personal.
From what I hear, the view isn’t pretty.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.