The Dangers of Simplification

We are living in a time when everything is simplified. The thought is that if one can grasp an idea reduced to its simplest form, the person will be in a place to understand the complexities of the matter. Truth, knowledge, and information presented in this idea over a period of time, however, causes the receiver to become a simple thinker, virtually incapable of handling complex notions and profundities outside of surface level to which they have become accustomed.

My point: everything is simple and complex at the same time. Don’t settle for the superficial. There is merit in the journey considering the complex. If one never takes this journey, which most minds (in public education) have been trained to resist, thinking will be forever underdeveloped and thoughts will not come to full maturity. Critical and independent thought, therefore, are skills few will really possess.

Solutions:

1). Read more. Don’t become like a sheep and do everything that everybody is doing and neglect what should be done. The mind (as little as we know about it) is truly a terrible thing to waste. Mental energy is squandered far too often on activities that have become normal in present day society.

Tangent: books are the best things to read. The screens on computers, ipads, phones, etc. are not good for the eyes.

2) Teach yourself. Don’t be content with information acquired though formal education. What one teaches him/herself is remembered to a greater degree than what one is forced to learn, and what one learns on his own is the area where he/she will eventually develop expertise. Remember: words don’t teach; experiences do.

Tangent: don’t sleep on the power of the media. TV seeks to provide a second hand experience as a teacher where the viewer will live vicariously through the story. In reality, TV/movies don’t teach, they program. Too much media has a stupefying affect on the viewer. Expressed in another way, formal education (in my thinking) is not limited to what one learns in school, but anything that perpetuates the system in which we live, or feeds to the masses in order to keep them “in line.”

3). Ask questions. All knowledge is birthed from questions people pose to themselves.

Tangent: the answer is not more important than the quest to find the answer. The quest will be useful, even if the answer/ conclusion one reaches is found to be wrong/unbeneficial over time. I say this because truth is stumbled upon during the quest. Truth is higher than knowledge and comes through revelation/inspiration from upper realms after reflecting on or in the midst of a first hand experience. In summary, knowledge comes from the answers to questions asked and truth comes from the quest to find the answer. They are not always the same. Knowing truth is preferred over having knowledge—even though knowledge is a step in acquiring truth.