When I Ruled The World - Part 1
Survival of the Blind
As I write
this I am more aware than ever of my powerlessness in the face of world events.
On all scales from global, national, state, local and personal I am aware that
the sense of having control, having a voice, making a difference or doing
something meaningful in this life is irrefutably an illusion.
At first this
sounds to be a somewhat bleak and inaccurate generalisation, however, I am not
alone in coming to this conclusion.
Psychologist
Ellen Langer coined the term “illusion of control” and described it as the
tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence
outcomes that they demonstrably have no influence over. From a purely
scientific standpoint, that does not admit any notion of the supernatural
(including any concept of God), religion and belief in the supernatural are
thus interpreted in accordance with this phenomenon. That is, such beliefs are
a superstition designed to avoid the unpleasant consequences of failure and the
realisation that we have no control.
Religious
thinkers and philosophers from Parmenides and Zeno to Buddha and others, have
puzzled over ideas of reality and illusion. This idea that we are not really in
control of our own lives is often expressed in popular culture as Woody Allen
once said in a possible paraphrase of Psalm 2:4, “If you want to make God
laugh, tell Him about your plans.”
Psalm 2:1-4
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Examples
If we think
about it honestly, there are examples all around us that will leave us in no
doubt that we are not in control.
On a
personal level we make plans and never see them achieved due to “circumstances
beyond our control”. We try to control the behaviour of our children, telling
ourselves that we are doing it for their own good. How often does this lead to
undesired outcomes because of a battle of wills, resulting in defiant and self-destructive
behaviour? Are we really helping them by seeking to shield them from mistakes
that could be valuable learning experiences?
We live in a modern world obsessed
by tracking everything and everyone, from the number of calories we eat to the
things we post on the internet and everything in between. Workplaces seek to
control the employees and governments seek to control the population. How does
any of this lead to a better life?
On a
national level, the most successful governments provide us with the “illusion
of control” by leading us to believe we can influence the outcome of elections.
Political debates are invariably restricted to topics of secondary importance,
chosen only because they give the appearance of dividing the parties running
for election. Once the dust settles, however, we find that the new boss looks a
lot like the old boss and the government juggernaut rolls on unchecked with
minimal policy change and nothing remotely resembling a heart for the people
that supposedly put them there. Democracy as an ideal thus ceases to exist and
becomes simply governance by illusion. Who is really in control of your
country?
Globally we
see nothing but manufactured chaos. America and its allies, Russia, China,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. all vying for control of the world’s material and
financial assets.
No action is off-limits in seeking this control. We see the manufacturing of conflict and the toppling of governments through various
means including, assassination, invasion, funding and arming of local insurgents so
long as the enemy of my enemy is my friend and can further the aim of
solidifying control over the region.
There is something
to be said for the idea that humanity fails to learn the lessons of history,
since the previous paragraph could be applied to any empire or aggressive nation state
within the last 5000 years.
Why?
The logical
question in all this is what every child asks when you tell him or her to do something.
Why? Why
must I do what you tell me?
So why do we need to be in control?
If you study
this topic invariably you will come across various theories like:
- We have an innate fear of the unknown, the greater the fear the greater the desire for control.
- We think we are superior to every other life form and have a right to control the world.
- It’s an evolutionary thing. Stemming from the needs of survival we have a need to control our physiological, safety and social needs.
While
studies into this topic reveal much about the effect of control and the way it
can be achieved, it stops far short of providing an acceptable answer to the
question of why we seek it so ardently.
For example, it soon becomes obvious that in order for most of us to be happy
we do not actually need to be in control we merely need to think we
are in control or “have a sense of control” within our lives. This is what
is exploited by governments and others to allow the population to be used as a
resource for their aims without them objecting to it. This does not tell us
why.
It is at
this point I found that science ceased to be of use. Without fail the so-called scientific
disciplines apply an evolutionary basis to investigations into the cause of our
need to seek control. This is perhaps the ultimate irony that almost guarantees
that science will not find the answer.
Having come from a position of believing
in evolution I can honestly say it was very disappointing to cut through the
hype and study the raw data, only to realise that as far as theories of existence
go, it would be just as valid for me to believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa
Claus. Evolutionists strike me as analogous to the best contortionists in the
world, twisting and turning the evidence on its head, changing the theory so
much in the last 150 years that it now barely resembles its origins and
requires no evidence whatsoever to validate it.
As a result I throw out any
explanation that requires an evolutionary underpinning to support it. Not
because I am superstitious as is often alleged when critics arise, but because I follow the
evidence and where evolution is concerned, I find none.
So if modern
science with its Darwinian foundation cannot answer the question for me, who or
what can?
Do we
continue in the hopes that science might one day get a clue?
Are we brave
enough to look further and cast off the shackles of scientific bias and control
in our search for answers or will we continue to be content with our present
existence, rife with anxiety and depression, seeking safety in the illusion of
control in a world where the evolutionists' survival of the fittest is supplanted
in our collective consciousness by the power brokers’ “survival of the blind”?
Surely we are meant for more than this?
