A Whole New World: How Knowledge Alters Lives
The Earth is a big place, and from what I hear, it is still small compared to the rest of the universe. Scientists say, the solar system is so vast, no matter how smart a person may believe themselves to be, no one can know everything. There are so many modern revelations coming forth about aged knowledge, it is rendering some realities obsolete. Do you remember when Pluto was a planet, humans traveling to Mars was science fiction, and a person born with a penis having to die a male, well not anymore. The world as we know it is being reshaped. It’s hard for many to grasps the new concepts that are being introduced, some people are just rendering them as false. But, if we were led to believe the wrong thing about planetary descriptions, gender roles, and space travel, what else were we wrongfully informed about?
Many people learn their facts in life from controlled curriculum or religious authority. Humanity is in turmoil right now, because old theories are clashing with new discoveries. Conventional assumptions about, race, sexual orientation, diet, and economics are expanding to the point where it has become confusing. There is scripture that says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities... etc. That is true, we are fighting against perception, established traditions, and changing rules. Although it is disturbing to see, what's occurring in the world seems to be in line with the upheaval that precursors change.
If you think about it, the animosity being displayed these days is evolution. People are showing content and fear for the constant and swift changes that are coming at them. Leaders and entities of allegedly higher morality are being exposed as depraved and debased. Government agencies and citizens are clashing with each other in the middle of a pandemic, that some question is even real. People are finding out that many of their allies were just standbys and altruism always comes with a bit of self-interests. To take my mind off of things, I tried to watch an old cartoon, Disney’s Aladdin, but that movie is highly political. As a kid it was a love story, as an adult it is a story about caste systems, classism, destiny, freedom of choice, deception, character, and integrity. The concepts of the movie are still relevant today.
For those who have not seen the movie, please do, but for the purposes of this blog, I will summarize the story. A person named Jafar, heard of a lamp that grants wishes, but it was held within a secret cave. Jafar is told that only one person is worthy to enter the cave: "the diamond in the rough", whom Jafar identifies as a poor boy named Aladdin. There’s a Princess named Jasmine who meets and falls in love with Aladdin, but she can’t marry him because he is not a prince. The movie follows the characters as they vie for power of the lamp and the control of a kingdom, through marrying Princess Jasmine. As an adult, the saddest part of all is realizing, the real victim of the whole story was the genie.
The Genie's sole purpose was to grant wishes. When he came across Aladdin, he thought he would have an opportunity to be free from that life, but Aladdin’s self-interest proved otherwise. Many people get treated like the Genie. People rub their egos making promises to them, but once those wishes are granted, back into the proverbial lamp they go, waiting to be rubbed on by the next wish maker. I feel the unrest we see before us is a collective group of genies tired of being rubbed on and given false promises. Just like the Genie in Aladdin, we are all trying to figure out how to get free and grant our own wishes, in what is shaping into a whole new world.
