Intolerance
Growing up, I heard it said that some people have “book smarts” but no “common sense”. This meant that some people, although highly educated, seemed lost concerning the simple things. This is a long standing observation. The Daodejing has some similar statements:
“The wise one does not know many things; He who knows many things is not wise.”
“The more knowledge you seek, the less you will understand.”
I don’t think this means that wisdom and education are mutually exclusive. It is however, the tendency of an educated person to rely more heavily on their education than their intuition. When you learn things, new doors open for you but at the same time, often other doors close. It’s not because they have to, it’s because we choose to let them.
The child stops believing in fairies, unicorns, ghosts, devils, angels, gods; as he replaces them with facts, equations, formulas, methodologies, explanations. The simple things become more complicated as they are examined, classified, and broken down into parts and procedures.
I have nothing against knowledge. I fully embrace technology and enjoy the wondrous things we can do. Science has brought us some amazing things. Yet like most things we do, these too come with costs.
I’ll skip over the obvious costs to the environment our scientific advances have waged and speak to a more social one. A new intolerance. I shouldn’t say “new”, but perhaps “evolved” would be more fitting. What we once knew as religious intolerance has become scientific intolerance.
Those people who still cling to ideas that require “faith” alone which cannot be proven or dis-proven by the scientific method are often ridiculed for their “hokey” or “backwards” beliefs. They are seen as uneducated or even intellectually inferior.
It’s almost a passing of the torch from one belief system to the next. I do mean belief system, too. I have had conversations with some of the more hardcore intellectuals who adamantly deny that science is a “belief” system. It’s a methodology that is substantiated by empirical evidence and verifiable through repeatable experimentation. I agreed with him, but then I asked, “Do you, or do you not believe the conclusions reached scientifically?”
Science is a system through which conclusions about the universe and ourselves can be reached. Those who subscribe to this system often do so to the exclusion of all other systems. To them, science is the only system which can provide the answers and any other method is incorrect. Sound familiar?
Did I mention that I like science? It’s beautiful, intricate, sometimes mysterious, sometimes frustrating but has helped us build things and advance our society in so many ways…both helpful and harmful. Of course this same description can probably fit with most popular religions at some point in history.
Despite all their similarities, it’s their differences we focus on. Which can mean only one thing. It’s not religious intolerance or scientific intolerance. It’s just plain old intolerance in general. Religion and science don’t have to be a “this or that” choice. A man of science can pray or meditate. A spiritual person can recognize that life evolves.
We don’t have to make a choice between wisdom and knowledge. No belief system has all the answers. In fact, most belief systems change over time. Yes, even science has evolved. So follow your interests, follow what feels right and makes you happy. Become a physicist that’s also spiritual. Find the answers that fit you, not the answers that someone else tries to fit on you.
Do that, and then be content that your neighbor has done the same. Even if your answers don’t match.
Now
Many people are always looking to the future with the hope that things will change for the better. This year will be different. This week will be a brand new week. Often, our concern with what will be is a way of proclaiming that despite what has been, more satisfactory events are surely on the horizon. Yet, every moment we spend thinking of what the future holds for us is a moment of right now that we’ve missed.
I’m not suggesting that we should never make plans or preparations of any kind. Even in nature, some animals store food for winter or migrate to warmer climates for the season. There is a difference in preparing for what we know will come and hoping for things to change. While “looking to better days” is comforting, the only time when change occurs is right now.
Right now is when our lives are lived. Right now is when we experience all that’s around us. Right now is when every baby is born and every life comes to its end. The past is just our memory of right now. The future is only a dream of what we want right now to be. Where we go is determined by the steps we take and the choices we make at this very moment.
The present is our anchor. It’s where we always are. If we constantly think about where we want to go, or dwell upon where we have been, we are missing out on now, and that’s the journey. The most important thing we can do is to focus on today and our choices for each moment. Because those choices are why we are here.
You may have heard the saying “one day at a time”. Keep this in heart and next year can be a better year. Next week can be a better week. Next moment can be a better moment. Be thoughtful of the present, and you will find you had a thoughtful future.
Excess
Today we often associate greed with big corporations and business execs with yearly bonuses greater than many people earn in a lifetime. According to research, the top 1% of Americans account for 43% of financial wealth and the bottom 80% account for only 7% of financial wealth. On a larger scale, 1% of the population controls about 40% of the world’s net worth. The bottom 50% of the entire world’s population accounts for only 1.1% of the total global wealth.
These extremes do demonstrate just how imbalanced things are. Presented with finite resources, finite wealth and growing population, it doesn’t make sense that our advanced 21st century civilization would even consider such conditions, much less tolerate them.
Ownership
Everything in the world today is considered property. People own land. People own material goods. People even own procedures and concepts.
Humanity’s need to own things wasn’t stopped when we ran out of things to own. Your very own experiences are considered a commodity. If you listen to music or watch a movie without the appropriate people being “rightfully” compensated first, you have committed a crime.
The Sun Will Set
Our society is obsessed with many things. One of them is youth, or at least the appearance of it. Desiring to remain young or even return to an earlier age is nothing new, certainly. Stories of magical elixirs and fountains of youth have been around for ages. Yet this desire to reverse the effects of time has grown far beyond myths and legends and become a full time industry.
We have creams to fade age spots and hide wrinkles. We have dyes for our hairs to restore color where the color has left. There are thousands of products to make us look younger and feel younger, and when those fail we hire surgeons to forcefully remove what could no longer be hidden.
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