Opinion/Editorial
GORILLAS IN THE MIST
Mythology is that required element of our social order we all suspect to be filled with lies, misstatements and elemental untruths yet are absolutely required for every one of us to get up in the morning and function in some sort of reasonable human condition. Joseph Campbell, the noted award-winning anthropologist was a master in coming to an understanding of this seemingly oxymoronic conclusion while also explaining why a living process of irrational thoughts is so foundationally vital to our very existence as a societal group and for an advanced civilization. While the great poet Thomas Gray said, “ignorance is bliss,” Joe Campbell said: “Follow your bliss.” Axiomatically, does that mean we should all hope for and pursue ignorance as a form of bliss? One would think so from studying the current philosophically expressed beliefs of the many belonging to the loosely defined group known as tea partiers.
Having an understanding of the real world, as opposed to or existing just adjacent to the phenomenal world, is vital to having a true ability to have any control of the external events occurring around us. The phenomenal world, according to Emmanuel Kant, is the one we mostly live in on a daily basis. The world is surmised by that part of the brain processing our five senses and coming to conclusions about what is happening around us. The real world is different from that. The real world has no basis in mythology. The physics of elements, particles, and motive forces rule the real world and belief changes none of it nor has any influence over it whatsoever except for the changes brought about by beings ruled by beliefs but having an ability to move and modify the effects of physics around them. The only beings we know to be truly capable of such activity are called humans.
There is no god in physics. Humans effect physics, discuss it, and make conclusions about it based upon belief in such a being or beings. God is part of the human mythological construct, which is not to state that God is not part of the real world from humanity’s perspective. Belief in any god does not allow for any kind of physical proof. There are plenty of statements made by humans about such physical proof, but those statements also require belief in the mythology. Government is neither good nor bad unless seen through the filter of established mythology. Few Democrats in the American culture believe in anything presented or believed by opposing Republicans, and vice versa. That government favors the few over the many is a long-established and unavoidable conclusion. Government is applied by the few. The ability of humans to act in unselfish, wholly generous, and altruistic ways over any period of time is unproven unless one wants to accept a position of belief about such a conclusion.
We all labor within the middle of moving mist as we age through our lives. We learn more and more about the ‘real’ world as we go through, depending upon our travel, exposure to other humans, and our ability to acquire and retain historical and experience-based data. The more we uncover about the real world the less our ability to communicate with those who remain ignorant of that particular part of reality. Most uncovered truths about the real world run smack into the wall of belief. Humans feel their way through life in the middle of the belief mist and smack right into wall after wall of human belief systems. Many older people in all cultures grow quieter as they age, and a bit crankier. One of the reasons is that they grow frustrated and tired of attempting to relate what they know of the real world to those who are mired in belief systems preventing them from having any clue.
A well-experienced person in sales knows exactly what the expression “I have to talk to my spouse” means when it comes to concluding a sale. It means no. Every time. A person running a retail store understands fully when a prospective buyer comes in, leaves without buying anything, but says, “I’ll be back.” The retailer knows that buyer will never be seen there again. A person seeing a UFO cannot tell that to anyone as the American culture teaches about the insanity of such an event to everyone all the time. A person who encountered and told that everyone lies at some point in his or her life will almost invariably and immediately indicate that they have, in fact, never told a lie in this life. If any or all of these exampled events are described to people lacking hands-on experience about them then those counseled will not believe the conclusions given. We are not ‘gorillas in the mist.’ Those gorillas live in a real physical mist halfway up the mountains in equatorial Africa. We humans live in a mist of our own making.
