The Next Major Step: Fact Over Fantasy

Essay

1) Dispelling Fantasy In Favor Of Fact

2) The Modification of Education

A Perfect World needs to be stocked with (nearly) perfect people, of which we now have a scarcity. These two critical changes need to occur in order for the human race to make that next important leap in our development.

In reality, these are concurrent steps. It's hard to make one happen or the other happen without both happening, or neither will happen.

In a previous post I touched on the changes that must happen within our school system, to nurture and iso-educate each of our children into maturity and adulthood-- to truly 'leave no child behind'.

But what of our adults? What can we do with all the hard-won stubborn beliefs floating about in our grown-ups' heads which contradict each other and bait themselves into anger and violence?

Each of us knows, in our hearts, that ours is the one true God (except for the ones who believe there is no God, or the ones who simply don't know). What is glaringly true to any outside observer is:

NOT ONE OF US IS RIGHT

(again, except for the people who claim not to know one way or the other)

Now, here's a short list of some other things that many people believe, but shouldn't, because they are all unproven:

Gremlins are real;

Breaking a mirror gives you seven years of bad luck;

A fat guy in a red suit with a chariot pulled by flying land mammals stuffs himself down every Christian's chimney once a year to give presents to their children (except for the bad ones);

You can get pregnant from a toilet seat;

Leprechauns guard a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow;

Black cats are bad luck;

Some guy died on a cross, then came back to life;

That same guy walked on water and turned it into wine;

A fairy comes into your house while you sleep whenever you lose a tooth and replaces it with coinage;

Take 'em all- I need a Playstation!

Throwing salt over your shoulder is lucky;

In historic times there was a bush that burned eternally;

A man bitten by a radioactive spider can shoot webs and swing from buildings;

You can't get pregnant the first time you have sex;

A bunny hides painted chicken eggs for children once a year;

Waiting For Easter

Walking under a ladder gives you bad luck;

You need 8 hours of sleep a day;

There are monsters under your bed;

A virgin gave birth;

A baby from another planet came to Earth, developed super powers and became a hero;

13 is an unlucky number;

Prayer works;

The bogeyman is real;

Human beings are sacred...

... and that just scratches the surface.

We humans are a fickle race. We develop language so that we may communicate and then once we do, we lie, cheat, steal and ignore sage advice from the wise. We hear what we want to hear and ignore or forget that which saddens us; we are swayed by beauty and tend to believe the words of an attractive person over an ordinary one; we allow emotion and prejudice to cloud our judgement.

Why can't we learn whom to trust? How can we learn to recognize who is telling us actual fact, and who expects us to just blindly believe any crap coming from their pie-holes?

I hold accountable the inherent aloneness that comes with a lifetime of receiving input from just one brain. Each of us are inside our own heads, by ourselves, from birth to death. Nobody joins us in there to engage in spirited debate; we have to speak to others for that exercise. We know that lying is something we are capable of, so how can we trust anything anyone has to say to us, knowing that they are capable of lying as well?

What a conundrum!

This is a test. I'm going to discuss two solutions; one of them is fact and the other is not-- see if you can figure out which is which:

1) We give every man, woman and child a medicine to help them develop limited telepathy-- just enough to know the emotions of the person they are speaking with-- just enough to know the truth.

Wow.

What a world that would be, huh? Suddenly, nobody could lie to anybody else! I'm sure there would be a major restructuring in the world, as liars, cheats and thieves everywhere are found out and neutralized. Neutralized sound so ominous-- nothing more would happen to them than everyone would know what they are planning, and foil it.

Just think of the radical changes we would undergo as a society! One question to each inmate and all wrongly jailed people go free... courts become unnecessary as we already KNOW the truth... no more scams... no more useless medicines... true love is TRULY true love... we'll know if cold fusion exists... you'll know who your friends are, and aren't (OUCH!)... teenagers can't lie anymore... you will FEEL malevolence directed towards you before it happens... I could go on.

2) There is a television drama called 'Lie To Me', and it's the story of a man who has figured out how to tell if a person is lying by using micro-clues, which every person broadcasts in their expressions and in their body movements, whether they want to or not. Virtually everybody displays micro-expressions, those gone-in-a-second looks that reveal a person's true emotion. Everyone also broadcasts feelings through body language. Learn to read these human signs of lie detection and it will be as though you have a limited telepathy! If you really start to observe people, especially when not part of the conversation, you will begin to notice how often people say one thing while expressing another through micro-expressions and body language, which is a very helpful tool in this current society.

Okay, test over. Can you tell which one is a fact?

If you thought the micro-expression thing was the fact, congratulations. Your mind is rooted in reality. If, however, it was reasonable to you that taking a pill can make you telepathic, then you are a perfect candidate for Fantasy Brainwashing (now with Lanolin!).

It's okay... lots of people have a fantasy or two-- that's normal. The problem comes from wanting that fantasy to come true so much that, in your head, it IS true. But I wouldn't call it YOUR problem... no, it's ALL our problem. We've built for ourselves, for better or worse, a society which sucks so bad that you feel you have to retreat into a much nicer place in your mind. All you are (which is not a bad thing) is a sensitive; someone who feels too much empathy to to succeed in this hardscrabble life without a little fantasy to make it seem better.

That you join together with other people who believe as you do is nothing more than a yearning to be part of the whole, albeit a small part. When you are part of a group like a church or a political party, you feel the comfort of shared beliefs, even if the larger society does NOT share that belief with you.

That advantage can become a disadvantage rather quickly if your beliefs run at polar opposites from the larger whole. Society can take a little lateral belief system (multiple religions are a good example), but try to get away with a diametrically opposing viewpoint (like polygamy, for example) and see how quickly society fights back!

Now if your group finds other groups who believe as you do, and join into a large group, it is possible to use the influence of numbers to coerce other groups to believe as you do (everyone else believes-- why shouldn't I?). At some point, the number of people who believe in a fantasy will exceed the number of people who prefer to hold on to reality, and a bizarre thing happens: the majority (who promote the fantasy) begin to believe that it is not just a pleasant escape from the harsh real world, but instead a reality. A fact. The TRUTH.

At that point, if you try, you can rally enough people of power who believe as you do to try to change the laws so that your fantasy becomes reality. But even if the laws do change, the fantasy remains a fantasy. No amount of law passing will change that. All passing a law will do is make it illegal to believe a fact.

Now I know that burst balloons are depressing, but I'm going to have to burst yours. I don't care if EVERYONE believes the same thing: If it isn't a fact, it isn't a fact. It's that simple. If you cannot prove your belief, it is simply a balloon. A bubble. A parade with rain all over it.

For example, at some point in the past everyone believed the Earth was flat, like a coin.
But fact won out and now most people are certain the Earth is a sphere, like a basketball. Notice I said MOST. It's those last few holdouts which hold back human development.

As intelligent beings, we can't let the resistant few hold back human advancement. How do we convince these holdouts to hear and see the provable truth? The hard reality is that it is probably not possible. Convincing ONE obstinate person that what they believe is not true is staggeringly difficult-- imagine trying to sway millions... or billions!

No, we need to allow these people to live out their lives, letting their mistaken opinions die with them. That's one reason I have always felt that Perfect World Theory would take several generations to accomplish-- we would have to let the old ideas pass away into obscurity.

More important than that, though, is to keep the infection from spreading. Ideas pass from mind to mind (usually older mind to younger) and this can't happen. Our children have to be free of the poisons that turn them into damaged adults, and as we know, it is damaged adults who cause the damage to society. If this is to be a benevolent transition, what methods are available to keep the two apart?

We have been bombarded with opinions coming from all around us since birth, starting with our parents and siblings, our close friends, the words of our teachers in school and our religious leaders in sanctuary; and from the media in the form of books, movies and television. Our parents are the biggest opinion swayers of all, because they start out as the ONLY people we (as toddlers) will trust.

In their formative years, children are unquestioning followers, only learning to mistrust information if they are directly injured by it... and can make the connection. If daddy, for example, says 'stand up to a bully!' you may do it despite your reluctance, but if the outcome is less than positive (for example, if the bully beats you up when you do) you may think twice about following daddy's advice again.

A few methods come to mind, but they are either varyingly intrusive, or ask for great sacrifice. We can have mandatory parenting classes and deny childbirth to those with outdated ideals. We can request a moratorium on new babies or make infertile potential parents. We can offer high-quality free private education to any student who lives on campus... starting as toddlers. There could be full time parenting nurses who live with the families. We could pay people NOT to have children. Then there's segregation of the population into 2 factions-- Old Worlders and Perfect Worlders.

The one that stands the best chance of actually happening? Attrition and education.

With attrition, people having old-world ideals live out their lives and then are gone, along with their concepts. We have that now, with little effect. To that we add the all-important education of the youth, which lets the fantasy wane and ultimately disappear. Family pressure would have to be decreased. Currently, when we want to modify public opinion we engage in a lengthy media blitz. More than simply airing 'The More You Know' commercial spots on television, every area of life would have to reflect the concepts. Well-known TV characters would espouse the ideals of World Family. Print ads would praise the new behaviors. Authority figures would embrace Perfect World thinking.

To this day, there are large numbers of people who live in remote areas around the country and as a result, don't have a lot of interaction with others. These people are reminiscent of the Japanese soldiers found on remote islands following World War II. Accidently forgotten, they remain at their posts awaiting word from their superiors. Until that time they firmly maintain their beliefs, unwilling and unable to hear the truth, capturing or killing people who look like his former enemies, oblivious to the fact that they are now at peace with Japan. People like the remote dwellers and the forgotten soldiers are best left to themselves, and when they pass away, so will their viewpoints.

So yeah... we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman