"The traditional view serves to protect us from the painful job of
thinking"
~John Kenneth Galbraith
Let’s
suppose for a moment that a group of gym people have been together in a gym
from birth. They have access to scientific literature, but choose to go with
the tradition view from within their cult…I
mean group.
The cultish
group… I mean gym people, are
positioned so they can only see what their group is pushing…I mean selling. The products they
advocate are Herbalife, Advocare, HCG, B-12 injections, shake weights,
gut-be-gone, butt blasters, skin wraps,
detox juicers, and many “special workout programs.”
The gym
people engage in what appears to us to be a game…cheering wildly and regarding
the ones who can explain the efficacy of their product the best as the most
reliable. Some even quote scripture as to suggest that God had a hand in their
products creation.
This
perspective is the only reality that the gym people know… what they are seeing
is merely shadows of testimonials that rouse their emotions and expose their
ignorance. They are thus conditioned to judge the quality of the product by the
skill of the snake oil salesman…I mean
orator. The story continues with one gym person breaking free from the gym. His eyes require time to adjust to the outside light. Once his vision comes into focus he is able to see the numerous scientific texts available regarding nutrition and exercise.
This is a moment of enlightenment.
Once
enlightenment occurs, the gym member feels compelled to lead the other members
from ignorance toward wisdom.
The gym
person would feel a huge responsibility to go back to the others and try to
explain that what they were seeing were mere illusions.
Unfortunately….Due
to the brain washing…I mean conditioning
these people have experienced their whole life, it will be almost impossible to
understand what the enlightened gym person is trying to tell them.
In the
end…we would rather have comfort than truth.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave… “Our
sensorial perception of the world creates a false notion of reality. We are
tricked into constructing a worldview and believing it to be the real thing.
When it comes to understanding the nature of reality we are all
shortsighted."
