Unexamined reality

Socrates reckoned that “The unexamined life is not worth living”.
T S Elliot reckoned that “Humankind cannot bear too much reality”.

It follows that the examined life is worth living and that most of humankind resists meeting the reality challenge. It is as if they wear moral corsets

Moral corsets are mind-made by nature, nurture and serendipity. Their purpose is to constrain thoughts, feelings and moods. They manage this by being narrow, limited, easy to manage, and elementary. This leads to cognitive consonance based on parochial xenophobia,

The corsets promote a set of rules and regulations for work, rest and play based on myths and magic. These protect the underdogs from having to think for themselves.

The cognitive corsets act as a censor by preventing culturally unacceptable thoughts and feelings from sneaking into consciousness; ie they keep the underdogs on the correct track as biddable zombies.

But there are always a few examiners who function as top-dog freethinkers at cutting edges. They expand their horizons and bravely go to mental spaces where there are no boundaries. They are the academics and intellectuals who face up to cognitive dissonance and speak ‘truth’ to power. Some recent ones, from my point of view, include Noam Chomsky, David Eagleman, Howard Gardner, Jonathan Haidt, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Kahneman, and E O Wilson. It is as if the freelance philosophers burst out of their moral corsets and provide cultural variations upon which natural selection ensures survival of the fittest.

Aye – know thy ‘self!’