Dis-illusioned with Illusions

Posted on February 20, 2008
Filed Under Fake Culture, Society |

It’s neat being a child, because the whole world is full of possibilities. Imagination is one of the greatest tools a child has, it gives them cause to explore every aspect of their environment, discover new ideas - in many ways it is the primary tool the young use in order to learn.

Yet whilst imagination is encouraged in the young, retaining ones ‘illusions’ into adulthood generally isn’t seen as acceptable. By illusions I mean the imagination games of curiosity a child has; thinking about far away places, imagining the ‘impossible’. In short, the things us adults know that are not real.

Adults know that illusions are largely worthless - so instead we spend our time concerned with delusions. Most people (myself included) march around contained inside our own little reality tunnels. We create a personal bubble around ourselves, and inside this bubble we decide how we want to view the world. So we become career minded, or politic-centric, or perhaps we even become a lazy-bum. Whatever the case, it is a form of ‘delusion’ because it is a belief-system built up from our own individual reality tunnel.

On some level children know about the closed-mindedness of adults. It’s why they have such a difficult job understanding the adult world…it is convoluted, and inconsistent. Yet the child assumes we must know what is best - after all many parents inform their kids of that particular fact quite often.

And so we find ourselves with two distinct worlds. The illusionary world of childhood, and the delusional world of adulthood. The interactions the clashing of these two worlds causes can be quite remarkable. For instance children are often told they mustn’t lie (so there is no monster under the bed; that would be a ‘lie’).

Meanwhile the child struggles to resolve their ‘illusions’ with ‘truth’. This is often a problem, because whilst the child isn’t allowed to lie - he also isn’t allowed to speak the truth. At school they are ‘told’ what the truth is and taught to never question, because the answers have already been given to them. Kids can ask very insightful questions, and this is never good because insightful questions have a way of shattering delusions.

So rather than have our delusions smashed it is far better that the children lie - so long as those lies are consensual lies.

This is something which is now beginning to change. The consensual-delusional world is rattling to the millions of cutting questions which are being asked. The old ways are starting to die out, yet in fear of the approaching change the authorities are bellowing and ranting, and enforcing all manner of crazed systems of control.

The old powers are struggling to keep the lid on a classroom full of children who have rediscovered their imaginations. The shackles of consensual-delusion no longer bind many, and that is seen as a great cause for concern. The fascinating thing here is that the parallels go even further. Just as the teacher shows his ignorance by shouting down the questioning child; “Because that’s just the way it is!”, so too are the powers of control showing their fear, ignorance and weaknesses on an increasingly daily basis. The more they enforce their will, the greater numbers of people will begin to ask questions.

And asking questions is the first step along the path to awakening…