19. Bursting the soap bubble

From birth, and some say even while in our mummies' tummies, our brains take in information. Some of this information comes from people around us - first our parents or guardians, then immediate relations, friends, co-workers. Books, TV and other media (increasingly pervasive is the Internet) are a primary source of information for hungry, sponge-like minds. I have been using the word 'information' because essentially that's what it is, just data. Whether it is fact or fiction, we decide when we process that data. The funny thing about us humans is that we allow ourselves to be conditioned. Conditioning applies to the way we think, what we believe and how we behave. We allow ourselves this flaw because it makes our lives simpler, or maybe we are just lazy to find out more. For instance, we go to the supermarket and pick up loaves of bread and cartons of milk without looking at the ingredients label. It's just bread and milk right? Experience tells us that. We condition ourselves to accept that these foods have not changed since we've known them. So the data we take the first time allows us to condition ourselves, upon successful processing, to accept the fact that bread and milk are just bread and milk and are yummy. Did you know they can add Vitamin C to milk now? And they do, together with a whole bunch of other chemicals.

Fear is another reason. Kids are put to bed with the idea that some monster will eat them if they are awake past 9pm. Yes, we all know that most kids grow up to distinguish fact from fiction. But the ideas of a monster conditioned them to go to bed for fear of being eaten. It's the same thing for stereotypes and stigmas. Parents do the worst harm when they instill and ingrain negative ideas in their children about other people.

1. Information --> 2. Processing --> 3. Judgment --> 4. Conditioning

So Kenneth was able to break out of the conditioning to ascertain for himself that the information he was receiving that he was processing had a false source. He broke that chain and was able to reassess things. Having discovered he's been duped will also make him question his truths even more.

This is sort of like when my Physics teacher once told us that all this we're learning about the insides of an atom are just ideas that scientists deem plausible. That's it. It may not be true. Goodness, imagine 17 year olds being subject to such a concept. We were aghast. But opening our minds to possibilities is important - we develop new ideas and accept things we can't control.

Remember, it's all not safe, just like the folks in Hogden thought. But it'll be interesting! Question, question, question. Don't subscribe to the curiosity killing cats notion. There are way too many strays around to disprove that load of bull.

Good for you Kenneth.