MYTH, REALITY AND THE QUEST FOR TRUTH
This is two little essays I wrote at different times, but here I bring together, they deal with Reality and Myth, two big words that are little understood, here I deconstruct.
We take for granted that what we do in life generally is based on a rational, logical, and easy to explain behavior brought by natural needs as clear as eating because we get hungry, and further yet, we know that if we do not, we would starve, and if deprived of food, eventually we will die from the lack of nutrients necessary to our well being and survival.
This is pretty easy to understand but other things we also take for granted, without even question it, take for example education, we go to school to learn and better ourselves as individuals right?
But what about if I tell you we go to school to learn how to make a living, like earning money, and be succssesful in life?
You probably will agree that is also a goal of education.
And if I tell you, that without an education your chances of success would be pretty grim, you also would agree.
And of course if you went to a better school your chances of being above the rest would be a lot better, you may tell me that for some few exceptions this may be true as well.
But then if I tell you the prime motive of an education it is to establish our place as high in the pyramid of power as possible, to obtain as much benefit as we can get?
Some of you will agree, some of you will say, didn’t we say on the begining that an education was to better ourselves as individuals, and the last statement sound it more like an education it is more for power grabbing, greed, survival of the fittest, type of thing, not very nice.
So what it is really an education, and what we need it for?
Making a living, the best way you can!
As I mention it this is the kind of thing we do not even question, but take for granted, in other words this it is part of our Mythology.
What is a Mythology?
Well you know we use the word Myth to say such and such is a myth, no to call something an outright lie!
Of course there is many other definitions of Myth, that are more sympathetic, like:
Myths are prescientific explanations of how we interpreted the natural world.
And some ones that make the word Myth, not only a respectable word, but now days a psycological word with serious implications, like:
Myths orient people to a Methaphysical dimension, guiding people to the innermost depth of the Psyche.
Some go as far as to say that Myth is the way we shape reality…
In a world full of Science, numbers, formulas, laws, and all those realities we call facts, not myths, how it is possible that Myth is how we shape Reality?
Wait a minute are you saying that lies shape our conventional life.
Oops!
Another problematic word, conventional:
Pertaining to convention, or a general agreement established arbitrarily by consent, or accepted usage.
Not neccessarly true, or better yet a fact…maybe another myth?
The fact is we as a Society we create our own Cosmology, and as individuals we choose our behavior inspired by a particular credo derived from our own way to see the World, our Myth, our Cosmology, but this doesn’t mean other people in another Society are wrong by not following our values, they have their Mythology, and therefore their particular way to see the World, they follow their own Cosmology.
Its funny. I was just having a similar conversation about truth, at work today. My colleague, a very conservative Catholic, believes in an “objective truth.” I suggested to him that his idea of “objective truth” was merely a projection of his own opinion of the truth and that the only knowable truths were merely matters of perspective combined with faith.
If an objective truth exists, it seems that man cannot know it. If a man thinks he knows what the objective truth is, it is my view that such a man is likely suffering from some form of delusion, regardless of whether that man is a scientist or a priest.
It seems like the folly of man is choosing belief over faith. In my estimation, faith allows the faithful to be open to the dynamic nature of life, allowing for a mystery to unfold. Belief, however, is the delusion that one’s perspective is a truth. (Take heliocentricity, for example).
Accordingly, I cannot be sure that any of what I just stated is actually a truth, or just my own perspective. To “believe” otherwise would undo everything I have just stated. Yet, I have faith that what I just said is correct (for me, at least!).
Thank you Bobby, good comment!
Well, we need to be educated not only to understand ourselves, but also the universe and the Earth and life and everything else. I find that education is suffering big time which is hard to understand because free resources are available everywhere. I find that attention deficit, inability to make decisions and lack of common sense are the results of overload of information while only small part of people ever try to understand and apply it.
The other side is definitely greed and power, but one does not even need to be educated if they have plenty of money. That actually leads to disasters: uneducated people having a lot of power which is the reality in many cases.
Ha!
I sort of smile, you reading one of my old post, the kind I would not think in what to write about it, and just start writing cramming all kinds of thoughts that will come to mind, just following my momentary inspiration.
Education I am afraid it’s a large subject that can vary so greatly from individual to the next one, ultimately we are all caught between our necessity, and our circumstances, that can be as different as our dreams, and our wills, independently from our chances, and capacities.
Yes we live in a world full of resources, but poor, with so many issues, and so little will by many, to help change not even the problems of many, but their own, by trying hard to learn, and gain knowledge and wisdom of their own.
Thank you Inese, for your fine comment. 🙂