Wicked Pissah essay.

[Sir Comrade Kenan]

,ÄúThe greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance ,Äì it is the illusion of knowledge.,Äù  -Daniel J. Boorstin (Librarian of Congress, b. 1914-d. 2004)

I was an only child, and when I was growing up, I had an imaginary friend, Gerald. Oh, the adventures we used to have. Why, once, Gerald and I took control of Alpha Centauri, the local ant colony. I learned quite a lot from him, as odd as it might be, simply by being able to think things through with another point of view. When I was about eight years old, I started public school, so Gerald had to go. To me, this friend was as real as everyone else, but no one else could see him. An illusion of knowledge works much in the same way, in that no one can see things exactly as you do. While it is easy to observe the illusions of others, I am sure I also have these illusions, even if I am totally unaware of them.
   If one is told something over and over, eventually you accept it as the truth. After all, a belief is just a thought that keeps happening. There seem to be many illusions of knowledge in this world, things that get repeated over and over because people have a desire to have the ,Äúright,Äù belief. Even though they are just illusions, doing this appears to be necessary for most people. We ignore the things people do not want to see, even though they are true, because we prefer the cozy, warm illusion to the bleak reality. We think we know how things are, but our illusions keep us from finding the truth. At the same time, there is no way to be certain who, if anyone is right. Either way, if you know things, or if you know nothing, the only thing that matters is that you went looking for knowledge, and questioned it once you found it. In my experience, many people seem to have the answers to the great questions in life. Do they? In general, people who say they know about these things just think they do. To them it is the truth, but they usually lack a good reason for their beliefs.
   If a firm belief is held, there is no reason to keep looking for more answers, right? Wrong. When new discoveries are made, they are not always welcomed with open arms. If an old idea is popular, people are going to be more comfortable with it, even if it is wrong. Look at the Big Bang. This is a widely accepted theory among the scientific community. But, there are problems with it. Can you observe a car traveling in a straight line, and determine where it came from? In the same way, scientists have observed the universe expanding, and assume that at one point it was a singularity.
    I have illusions of knowledge. How I perceive the world, everything I have learned, and just about everything that I think could all be an illusion. Nothing could exist, or everything could just as easily be real. Everything I observe seems to be just as likely to be false as it is true. This is just something that everyone needs to accept.
There is a story of a Zen master who was thought to be very wise. One day, a pupil started to talk with the master about the true meaning in things, generally ranting about how he knew so much. The master invited this pupil to his hut for tea. The master poured his tea, and then began to pour for the pupil. Once the cup was full, he began to pour again. Tea spilled all over the table, soaking the student. The student shouted: ,ÄúWhat are you doing? Can,Äôt you see the cup is full?,Äù To which the master replied ,ÄúExactly. I cannot teach you what you wish to learn if you think you already know, just as I cannot put more tea into a cup that is already full. To truly discover, you must empty your cup.,Äù
   Therein lays the point. Learn, discover, explore, and never stop.


Edit: Significantly less crappy now.

[B_M_W]

Nice, but you screwed up the Zen story. It was between a man of scholarship, a professor at a university, and a Zen Master. The professor just started talking and talking, and truthfully, I think overfilling his cup was less of an attemt to teach, and more of an attempt to get him to STFU. 

[Sir Comrade Kenan]

Yeah, to be honest, I kind of fudged it to pad the thing.
Eh, I made it work, kinda.
Though I suppose I should put in something about the need to empty one's proverbial cup.