Burden of insight

I remember talking to a (then) co-worker during my internship about the burden of insight. At the time, we were talking about it in a negative context- that is, a person was not functioning very well in their job despite numerous instances of feedback, critiques, and reprimands because they weren't able to deduce that what they were doing or the way in which they were doing it was wrong. The guy just literally could not understand the concepts of the correction- because in his mind, there was no wrong the be righted.

In recent weeks, I've been thinking about this concept, and applying it in a much broader scope- and honestly, sometimes I think that this would be a nice state of mind. It might be kind of nice to not really be aware of what is going on. 'Ignorance is bliss', it is said. And really, they might just be right.

I spend most of my days hanging out with my kids, so I admit that I may have a little bit of a skew to my perspective. I mean, I spend my days watching children's television, coloring pictures, and playing pretend. Forget the gray- it's all black and white, baby! And pink and powder blue, too!

I realize that life is, in no way, shape, form, etc., never going to play out like an episode of Dora. "Bad guys" (whatever that term means, seriously) are never going to cease and desist because we incant a plea three times. We don't get a talking/singing map to help us plan our journeys. We aren't administered a stock magic backpack that is sure to contain at least one item that we need at any given moment. And we certainly don't hang out with near-naked primates. (I am sorry if I am assuming anything about your pets)

But still- having insight can be such a bother. Because then we start to think about things, and we start to allow ideas and thoughts to take hold in our mind. I'm not saying thinking is bad- believe me, you won't find me burning books to suppress knowledge- but what I am saying is that often times, my thoughts can warp my perception and leave me vulnerable to hopelessness and despair.

I think about things in the world- the events unfolding before us, as we see entire governments thrown down in a state of worldwide unrest. Even on the home front, the cracks in the foundation are beginning to show. And I think sometimes, wouldn't it be nice to just live in a corner of the world somewhere, oblivious to what's going on? Just going about the normal day-to-day routine, just living and spending time with family?

I think about all the weights and cares that are superficially placed on us. We owe thousands of dollars to faceless corporations. We are not the masters of our own destiny- we are slaves to a system that survives on the sweat of our labor. Right now, we live in a primarily tertiary (service) economy. This is not a system that is building a better human being- it's a system that actually, in my opinion, reduces our humanity by robbing us of our base abilities to survive apart from the system. We may not be plugged into machines- but we're not all that far removed from being in The Matrix, either. And then I think, maybe the steak isn't real- but who cares? We're eating steak, right?

Look, I'm as big a fan of insight as anyone. Because of the nature of humans and the systems we create to naturally drift to homeostasis, insight can provide the spark that leads to meaningful change. Insight can help us to compartmentalize the world around us, and realize that while the big picture moves forward that we are still responsible to take care of our part of the puzzle. Having knowledge and a general sense of awareness (even one in the stages of genesis) is wonderful, and really I wouldn't trade it for anything.

But along with that comes the burden. The burden that we know that we cannot always trust the actions or words of others- no matter their rank or station. The burden that we realize that we have much less control of our lives than we are led to believe. The burden of knowing that many of the pillars our society is made of are made of wet cardboard, just waiting for a windstorm to come and blow them all down.

Look at the nuclear event in Japan. Here is something that completely blindsided those poor people because of a natural catastrophic event. The initial assessments were that it was "serious" but likely to be contained fairly quickly- definitely not the next Chernobyl, is what we were told. And then the situation began to spiral out of control, and radiation began to leak, and soon they were calling this the biggest nuclear event since Chernobyl, and radiation had got in the tap water and Tokyo was running out of bottled water. Hard to believe that mere weeks ago, lives were being lived in much the same manner as I live mind today.

Apologies for the ramblingness. Often times, I'm able to sort things out in my head before I blog- or at least during the blog itself. Right now, I'm not 100% confident that I've done that. I'm not even sure if I have a point. How's that for a conclusion?