One characteristic of perception is that it very much depends on our prior experience, thus: vision + perception = reality. Too often we recoil at the prospect of the unknown and lurch back to the comfort of our uninformed fears. Fear can be our excuse, our confidante, our protector or our motivator. But one thing is for sure, we are living in an age of fear.

Growing up we were taught about Galileo and his confident supposition that the Earth revolved around the sun and, for that, the “experts” of the day labeled him a heretical, anti-science radical. We know today that fear of losing power and status drove powerful people in the Italian astronomer’s day to label him a heretic. But he persisted and insisted that he was right, and it was eventually proven, and now is an obvious, immutable fact.

His vision and perception had been altered by his careful study of the scientific analysis of astronomy and eventually his reality changed. It was likely pretty scary when he determined that what everyone seemed to think without question — was not accurate.

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Things haven’t really changed that much, and today we live pretty much the same way. Should you question anything but don’t have a Ph.D. in the particular area of concern, then you are labeled an ignorant, brainwashed, radical, racist, denier, etc. Galileo didn’t have as much access to information as we have today, and because the preponderance of hyper-specialization has gripped every aspect of our culture, we are told to shut up, listen to the experts and do what we’re told even though sometimes those same experts miss the forest because they are so focused on the trees!

But how does one not see the obvious errors that are compounding in our culture by the so-called experts who continue to tell us that we need to dread the things they tell us to fear. Global war is imminent if we don’t destroy Russia (while China gets a pass?), global catastrophe is just a few years away unless we take drastic action now (but I’ve been told this for 40 years and things actually seem better), line up for your COVID shots or you will die and if you really cared about others you would not put their safety at risk (until it was discovered that the shots might help with the severity of the virus but didn’t help with minimizing contraction or transmission). Election integrity is really just racism in disguise (but why are elections any different than asking for identification to purchase alcohol, apply for a passport or when you get pulled over?).

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It isn’t hard to figure all this stuff out, and the information is easily available. But Big Pharma knows that there isn’t any profit in a healthy populace, the War Machine can’t forge ahead unless there is fear and elections that are close and have consequences should be as accurate as possible! We need to have trust in all of these institutions for our safety and protection but aren’t we allowed to ask questions and get some answers? Why is the narrative the most important thing, instead of just answering the question?

Our present reality is shaped by the experiences we have and thus: vision + perception = reality. Teaching people to blindly follow out of fear seems like a good strategy until you actually need people to think for themselves. Our world is a pretty complex place and sometimes we don’t always make the best, most accurate decisions, but demonizing people shouldn’t be the norm for those who simply want more information or hear a different perspective.

It’s all part and parcel of what we teach the future leaders and informed citizens to do: ask questions, trust but verify, look at both sides and discuss things. Why is it that many of those who used to tell us to question everything, and are now in power, (and expected to provide the answers) are so resistant to affording people the same things they expected when they were younger?

It’s a big question and one that seriously needs to be discussed. Our future depends on the answers!