My father was an avid gardener. He turned the backyard bare dirt of our new tract home into a paradise of grass, flowers, trees, and shrubs, plus a very productive vegetable garden. So I thought he would be interested in what I had learned that day in eighth-grade biology class. We were standing by his sunburst locust tree when I excitedly told him that tree branches don’t move up the trunk as the tree grows. I was amazed to learn that the lower branches die off when shaded out by upper branches. I was completely taken aback when he exploded in anger with, “Of course, the branches move up as the tree grows. Do you think I’m stupid!” Dad was very sensitive to the fact that he had to quit school very young as an orphan who needed to begin working instead of going to high school. He was very intelligent, able to learn new jobs that eventually led him to become a very respected machinist in the Chevrolet auto plant in Flint, Michigan. The engineers always choose him to machine their experimental projects.
I learned in high school about the emerging understanding that industrial smokestack emissions were creating “acid rain” that was changing the ph of surface lakes and rivers. The nickel smelting plants in Sudbury, Ontario, were the initial focus of this new research that implicated all large factory smokestacks of the time. I was relaying this new knowledge at our regular family supper. Once again, my father exploded with loyalty-based outrage that I would vilify his place of employment, which “put food on our table.”
These two events exemplify that our knowledge base of the world around us is easily stagnated and loyalty is more important than fact and truth. Accepting new knowledge can be painful. The psychologist M. Scott Peck wrote in his book “The People of the Lie” that “truth or reality is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome the pain…..Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.” His basic premise was that evil moves in the world through lies and people who lie.
Carl Sagan, the astronomer and planetary scientist, is quoted as saying, “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” I believe it takes clear insight to recognize the fraud, humility and courage to accept being duped and suffering regrets to get over the fraud. It is said “the truth will set you free” but we know that freedom is a hard fought battle to attain and to keep. This is true individually and politically.
Wisdom is the beneficiary of facing the pain of ignorance and recognizing the bamboozle. Wisdom requires us to be lifelong learners by using our brains freely and frequently. Self-awareness of current beliefs and baseline cultural knowledge is also required to mature because those impact what we perceive. The French philosopher Henri Bergson stated, “The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” He emphasizes that clear, accurate perception is not passive but must be developed by mental readiness and preparation. His statement implies that being open-minded allows for greater comprehension. Bergson’s writings have heavily influenced modern social scientists working in a broad range of fields.
I’m not sure what Neil Young means in “Helpless” when he sings “Big birds flying across the sky, throwing shadows on our eyes…” but “throwing shadows on our eyes” really struck me. By combining Young’s lyrics with Bergson’s quote, I ask myself what are the “shadows” currently thrown on our collective eyes? These shaded diversions are many and intended to occupy our minds instead of the facts and truth of our changing world economically, politically, and environmentally.
The current anti-immigrant lies cast big shadows on facts. It is a fact that immigrants, both legal and undocumented, are a net benefit to our economy, not a drain on it. They don’t break laws any more than US citizens. The minds of many American citizens are prepared to see this truth and stand against the Trump administration’s trampling on civil rights, the rule of law, and the Constitution. Other citizens prefer to avoid the pain of being bamboozled.
“Make America Great Again” is another shadow. Those loyal to the movement, like my father’s loyalty to the factory smoke stacks, are missing the real impact of that shade. America’s standing in the world economically, militarily, and ethically is being diminished by the Trump administration, which values loyalty over all else, including ethics, legality, qualifications, and expertise. Like the branches on a growing tree, countries that stay in the shadow of falsehood will die off in favor of branches that reach for sunlight. This fact of nature benefits the tree and the tree of humanity.
This administration’s roll-back of science-based environmental policy is a literal “shadow on our eyes” as pollution in the skies continues to alter our weather to the extreme. Those who blindly (shaded eyes?) accept anti-environmental falsehoods are leaving a darkened future for all our children. Future generations will be forced to acknowledge and adapt to the damage their elders refused to address.
Bergson stated, “The motive power of democracy is love” in his 1932 work, “The Two Sources of Morality and Religion.” He argues that democracy is deeply rooted in Christian-influenced love of humanity. My father died of heart failure at 43 before he learned about the branches on his beloved backyard trees. But he did have a deep love of family, church, and country. I wonder how his worldview would have expanded as he matured. I like to think he would have done what my morning tea bag said yesterday. “Know the unknown, hear the unheard, see the unseen.” I wish the same for all of us in the precious time we have on this earth.
