02.07.06
the oddest joke of all…
being human and having this brain resting between our two funny looking hairless ears.
to own such a capacity to understand more about the nature of reality than any other species and still to voluntarily hide in ignorance, flee from the thing that makes us truly a marvel as a species — this will of ours– only possible because of our superior ability to learn, plan, intuit, and respond.
how is it that there are still so many of us unwilling to engage, learn, and/or adapt? with this mind– and we still run to the dark places of fear which inhibits our ability to act
isn’t that really the problem with chronic depression? couldn’t the bio-chemical response be the result of a perpetual-yet-habituated state of alarm (via some form of chronic stress) that renders you unable to experience any emotions strongly enough to choose a course of action (whether positive or negative)?
– but let’s not harp on depression….
it’s mildly alarming that much of modern society is capable of virtually worshiping the outcomes of the modern scientist as irrefutable dogma– with knowledge touching on the very stuff of ethical beliefs, blindly accepting facts put forth in published journals, later transcribed by scientific journalists and news research teams (who aren’t actually required to have a real understanding of the methodological practices) and served to joe everyman with the ten-o-clock news.
and yet, those scientists (you know, the ones that nearly constitute a “They say” capital “T”– those finely honed mental athletes), can be as broken and ineffective in their emotional life as the janitor, plumber, mechanic, stripper, secretary, and stay at home mom. and sometimes, those mental athletes are even more broken, weak, vapid, vindictive, and childish than the rest of us lay people.
the ugly version of what i’m saying, is that intelligence (as in IQ), which we all seem to value at in level, must be seen for what it risks being: a growing book of complex facts, theories, and hypotheses assimilated in an illusory fog of philosophical mandates (woah!)… as in the socratic method of inquiry.
in other words, the new scientist needs a social consciousness (we can no longer accept the two-dimensional charicature of the bespectacled and anemic academic fed largely on the sheer joy of the quest for knowledge)– the connections between people and knowledge are shrinking. writing a paper about the implications of bonobo behavior on human sexual behavior is not without consequence, it is less likely than ever that it will merely disappear into the musty archives of yesteryear.
this would be fine if scientists were perfect… exposure is a good thing, knowledge is good– when it’s a reflection of what is and not merely another view point being supported by carefully controlled lab conditions, or worse yet, mindless puzzle solving with a vindeta for success.
fact is, science needs to get off it’s high horse and remind itself that it and its body of work are ultimately composed of a network of humans (and their dreams, hopes, disappointments, sublimated fears, obsessions, and general human nuttiness) not merely irrevocable facts and technologically advanced tools designed to better measure phenomenon x.
don’t get me wrong here: there is somewhere in the emotional quagmire, a very real “sheer joy” in the knowing, learning, exploring, pealing back the illusory surface of complex yet-often-surprisingly-simple aspects of life. in fact, there is no other such pleasures so intrinsically human, and thus more personally gratifying.
and i stand by ALL of our rights to pursue knowledge in it’s many permutations… to critically anyalyze be we beginners or experts.