Sunday, November 13, 2011

Reality Indeed

We have grown comfortable with the notion that reality is, well, real.  We believe that reality is outside ourselves, an independent thing over which we have little control.   It's a handy way of thinking, really, because if we're stuck in here and everything else in reality is out there, we don't have to take responsibility for it.  We're just innocent bystanders to everything except our own individual actions.  When good stuff happens--what a happy surprise!  When bad stuff happens--we're victims.

But both science and spirituality indicate that our reality is not at all as we perceive.  Let me give you some examples.  According to science, all matter is made of atoms.  Atoms are made of a nucleus of some protons and neutrons and then some orbiting electrons that whirl around the nucleus.  Cool, right?  Well, here's the rub.  If you blew up an atom's nucleus to be the size of a pea, and you stuck it out on the 50 yard line of a football stadium, the electrons would be outside the bleachers, in the parking lots.   And, even the protons, neutrons and electrons aren't solid--they're energy--things called quarks and strings, that can't make up their minds whether they are waves or particles.  So, science proves that the stuff our reality is supposed to be made of is more than 99% space, and less than 1% energy, yet our perception of the world is that it is solid and "real." 

Here's another example.  What we see is not what's really there, but a result of the clever programming of our brains.  Our eyes merely focus light, which is energy.  Our brains, through the visual cortex, turn that light into a dimensional picture.  Over 100 years ago, an experimenter proved that if you turn your 'vision' upside down with lenses, within a few days, your brain turns it 'right side up' again, and you pop along, seeing everything as it should be.  Oddly, though, once you remove the lenses, your vision would turn 'upside down' again for a few days, until your brain programming had enough time to catch up to the new reality.   That old saw about 'what you see is what you get?'  Well, not so much.

And a final example.  Have you ever watched news coverage of the same event on Fox News and MSNBC?  To do so is to understand that there is no "real," only perception.  On Fox, Sarah Palin was a goddess of conservative values and constitutional adherence.  On MSNBC, she was a dimwit with a messiah complex and a deer rifle.  In fact, the woman is probably neither, but whatever she is, we'd never know it by looking at the so-called news. 

So, what's the point, you may ask.  The point is that reality ain't all it's cracked up to be.  If we're willing to fall in line, sheep-like, behind whatever version of life happens to be in front of us at the moment, we are buying into an illusion, colored by the perspective of whoever painted that fictionalized version of the way things are.   In our reality, that's usually the government, either directly or through some paid filter, and it's usually telling us that some group, some ideology, some 'other' is the cause of all our problems.  And as we dutifully jump on board, parroting the talking points,  chowing down on their propagandized message, hook line and sinker,  and blaming someone for our ills, we allow reality to pass us by.  

I believe, after many many hours of research and thought and pondering, that reality is exactly this.  There is an element of society worldwide today who finds us regular people to be about the same worth as any other piece of livestock.  We are slave labor, cannon fodder, and loyal unthinking minions all rolled up in one.  We are worthy only to make sure their money gets counted, their sheets get washed, their food gets grown, and their wars get fought.  They own the biggest businesses, the biggest banks, and most of the governments.  There aren't enough of them to actually defeat us all, if we actually tried to stop them.  Their continued success turns on whether they can continue to be successful at having us fight one another.  And so their game is to keep us stupid, scared, and angry at the "enemy" which they've conveniently defined for us. 

Today, a fair number of people are actually starting to get this.  Unfortunately, a lot of them are sitting around waiting for someone to save them--for Jesus to return, or for ETs to swoop in and defeat the evil ones, or whatever--when what we really need to do is save ourselves. 

They want us stupid, so refuse to be stupid.  Stop only looking at information that confirms your pre-conceived notion of what's good and bad.  Consider the other side.  Think.  Be critical. 

They want us scared, so refuse to be scared.   Stop buying the "threat of the week."  Just in the last few years, we've been told that the downfall of America is going to be the "illegals" taking our jobs, the Chinese manipulating their currency, the liberals killing babies, the conservatives hoarding guns, the Black Panthers intimidating voters, ACORN comitting voter fraud, the Muslims imposing Sharia law on the world, Saddam Hussein and his imaginary nukes, Moammar Gadhaffi and his whatever it was we killed him for, Iran developing enough nuclear material to blow their noses, some used car salesman conspiring with an FBI agent to assassinate a Saudi diplomat,  killer asteroids and comets, murderous aliens, etc., etc., etc.  

They want us angry at their defined enemy, so stop listening to them about who the enemy is.   It's a manipulation--a sham.  While we've been busy being scared of all these threats, the scary thing that's actually been occuring is that our own government has been systematically eroding our rights. They claim it's now Constitutional for our government to read our emails and listen to our phone conversations, put cameras and recording devices everywhere to spy on us, and put GPS units on our cars to track us, without warrants. They claim they can tell us what kind of food to eat, and what kind of medicines we must take. They even claim they can kill us, legally and without trial or proof of wrongdoing, if only they call us a name first.   And they're only getting away with it because we're letting them--so stop letting them.  Stop considering other ordinary people, whether they are liberals or conservatives, pro-life or pro-choice, Chinese or Russian, Muslim or Christian, as the enemy.  They're not.  They may disagree with us, yes, they may annoy us--but ordinary people can't make us do anything.   The enemy is the authority--the people who have the money and the power to make us do stuff--and it's them that we need to oppose.

That's the only reality worth buying into--the one that makes us free.

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