Opinion/Editorial
ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS

by James Strauss

The great unknown causes more fear, paralysis and downright terror than any potentially frightful coming or existent event. It is also in contemplation of the great unknown that human intellect is compelled to reach out for extra stimulation, and then works with it to build on what we consider the success of rising technology within it. A classic example of the two-edged sword. The swipe of one metaphorical edge across the mind of one human stops everything bringing about abject failure, but the counter-swipe of the other causes great advancement and success.

In America today, both societally and culturally, the single dominant area inspiring perception as the great unknown revolves around the conflicting rules laid out by different cultures throughout humanity. The ever tightening, ever more complex, written and verbalized rules keep occupying larger, and larger portions of mankind’s time and attention. For example, on television and in the movies most plots and themes seem to revolve around the keeping of the social and physical rules as laid out by other humans in leadership positions. All crime shows, westerns, and most dramas are about the breaking or keeping of said rules. The true great unknown mysteries of science and the universe have taken a back seat to the attention being showered down upon rule keepers and breakers, and those facile in keeping and breaking them.

As any quantum theorist will tell you, it’s all about information. The universe is purportedly held together, and in fact made up of, nothing more or less than information coming together and then splitting apart. That’s been proven time and again in giant accelerators built for that task. The micro world is all about information and how it is held together, or not. The macro world, the big place we all live in, is about information too. The collection of it, the use of it, and of course, the misuse of it. On the micro level there’s some duplicity going on as well. Physicists cannot figure out how light can be both a particle and a wave but it cannot be both. They’ve proven it can be either one or the other, but all of their theoretical structures state that such duality is not possible. To explain this divergence in the observable data they blamed humans.   All humans are adept at interpreting information in a way that favors them most. So, light is a particle when a human sees it and tests it to be a particle. When the human tests it to be a wave, then it’s a wave. If a human does not test for it, then it is presumed to not be there at all. When you are up late at night reading under a light try not to think about that fact that the rays (or whatever they are) that some theories claim do not exist, are what is illuminating your pages! In reality, scientists are quite divided on the issue of what light is. As many things that light is (both as a particle and as a wave) when it is not being studied, remember some scientists believe that it may not “exist” as light at all.

What is the meaning of all this? Information. Humans work to gain information in order to survive in this harsh planetary environment that has a heavy oxygen content. Oxygen being one of the most corrosive of the elements. Humans have gathered information about woods, metals, plants and animals in order to build shelter against the weather, create clothing for protection, utilize energy to cook and control temperature, and much more. Notably, humanity has not stopped there, either in studying the sciences or in using the results. They also use information on one another. And this is where duplicity comes into play creating a need for concepts like integrity, honesty, truth, and honor.

Governments have gotten so good at collecting and using information that every one of them has a major branch which does nothing but collect, store, and at times, broadcast information. For example, the governments of the world decide what to do when catastrophes occur. Whether it’s the assassination of a major world leader, the blowing up of embassies, or even the twin towers, it’s governments that assign blame and responsibility, and decide what the consequences should be. Mass media, when called the news, has come to have similar power to supposedly collect and disseminate information. Both groups have about the same track record when it comes to disseminating valid and truthful information. And that’s for a very good reason. Because by controlling the message these entities control life. They control political decision-making and leadership selections. They control economies, and even the quality of life their people live in, and among. In this context why wouldn’t both governmental officials and members of the press not deceive or manipulate, if deception improved their own situation and increased their status over competing humans or entities?

Not unexpectedly, however, these deceptions are often revealed, and the uncovering and disseminating of previously hidden information has caused much angst and downright anger to erupt in cultures all across the earth. The rise of modern communications via cell phones, computers, television, and internet technology has allowed most humans to realize that they are being lied to about almost everything, by almost all supposedly trusted sources. A presidential candidate like Donald Trump does not rise in popularity to the extent that he is not far from winning the presidency by accident. His idiotic buffoonery is being sold as ‘at least telling the truth’ about what he thinks. Truth has become so uncommon today, and a belief in the telling of the truth seen as so rare, that a man like Trump, who in the past would have been easily vilified and sent packing in the first few days of his candidacy, now has a shot at becoming the leader of the free world. Is it scarier to consider his election, or the fact that the truths our country has held to be so self-evident are neither truths nor self-evident?

Are people today truly seeing more easily through the lies? Prior to the rise of modern media were the lies always there, but just not seen or known? The old radio show called The Shadow described an early super hero who simply “knew” about criminals, their operations and their movements, and could cloud their minds so they could not even see him. Mass media purports to give viewers the Shadow’s powers, but falls so short in that endeavor that it has generated deep cultural disappointment and anger.

The media and governments collect information, but they want to hold on to all of it, and tell only which parts they choose to tell.
Only The Shadow knows for sure, and everyone is mad about that.
~ James Strauss