As we stand on the shoulders of giants, be careful not to fall...
Hopefully all of you at some point or another have heard the phrase "we stand on the shoulders of giants". If you haven't given it much thought or simply shrug each time you hear it without knowing what it means then the powerful message inside that simple phrase may be missed.
That simple phrase applies to pretty much every single aspect of our lives. There is no guarantee we have minds that are intellectually more powerful, or wiser than those that came before us. In fact, I believe often the evidence exists showing that it is in fact quite the opposite.
Then why do we have so many more things, and do so many things they couldn't even imagine?
It is simple. We stand upon the shoulders of giants.
When that first person thought of attaching a sharpened stone to the end of a long stick and created the spear it only then became obvious to the rest of the people. Such a person would have been one of the first giants.
In this phrase the term giants is not referring to actual stature, and it isn't necessarily referring to genius. It is referring to accomplishments.
The path to what we have now has many paving stones that were laid down to get here. Many men and women put their minds towards deep thinking and/or creative inspiration.
This is where new paving stones come from.
They do not come from repeating the same stones over and over again. That will not lead you anywhere new, and it can actually lead us into repeating old things and not moving forward. This can sometimes be echoed in the phrase "Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it."
Most things we do have been built upon the blocks of possibility that were envisioned and first created by someone who came before us.
We have vastly complex things now that those giants could not have recognized. A simple part is invented by a giant, and down the road another person thinks of a way to combine that part with some others. That person is standing upon the shoulders of those that came before them. Without those parts from earlier they may not even have had the inspiration and opportunity to produce what they did. The person potentially becomes a giant in their own right.
Then the process continues and what that person created is combined with other things, and it continues in a hopefully neverending exploration of possibilities.
Some of those stones of the past lead to dark places, and we talk about them with aversion, and horror. Yet even those stones are ones upon which we build. The things we build are generally designed to avoid the horror that was discovered or unleashed by that past giant. We learn, even from the darkness, we learn.
So what happens when time changes and people make learning and looking at the stones around us illegal? What happens when they intentionally remove a lot of the teachings that freed minds? What happens if people become increasingly unable to see the works of the giants? What happens when they try to pretend the things they consider dark did not happen, and to wipe out records of them?
In my mind that seems like falling off of the shoulders of giants. After such a long period of continually standing upon the increasing number of shoulders of the past the fall could be quite far.
How much that people take for granted and don't actually know how to produce themselves would be lost?
It is obvious to me that many if not most of those calling for banning and restricting of history, knowledge, communication, and words would die in such an event.
I am not saying anyone in particular would kill them. I simply think that most of them wouldn't know how to survive and the same lack of teaching, or perhaps intentional teaching to keep them ignorant might lock their minds so they lack the basic skills of thought that would be required for them to try to think their way out of the world erased of the works of giants.
Though I suspect they would turn upon each other and indeed be responsible for a number of deaths in that regard too in their panic to find out why things no longer are magically working and why their fantasy imagined worlds where nothing can offend them no longer respond, or are being enforced and mandated by law.
At some point "starvation offends me" is not going to matter to reality at all. Reality will ignore them as they rant about being offended. It will continue to operate as it always does. Artificial rules will not stop reality from being reality.
So left with the fall from the shoulders of giants and the fixation upon whether they are offended or not, and also trying really hard not to offend anyone they will fail to see that their society is based 100% about viewing themselves and others as victims.
They cover their heads up under the covers so they can't see that monster named reality.
This is the fault of society, laws, education, and parenting.
In the process of trying so hard to protect our children from being offended, having hurt feelings, having hardship, etc. We have also deprived them the lessons reality would teach them about survival.
Through this process we are rotting the potential of the future. The odds of society falling off of the shoulders of giants is ever increasing.
So what can we do?
Stop viewing yourself as a victim and that is the first step to not being a victim.
Stop looking for what offends you. Instead learn from being offended so it no longer offends you.
The things people tend to be offended by these days are petty and irrelevant to reality, and they certainly are not increasing your survival skills or increasing the likelihood of you climbing onto shoulders of giants.
Toss terms like micro-aggressions in the trash where they belong. That terminology is 100% designed to inspire people to whine about being offended and to look closely for things to be offended about. It is not about learning, surviving, or being productive. It is a 100% victim mentality system. It is mind rot. It is cancer.
It is not the only such idea, but that one concept alone can do a lot of damage to society, and to people. Don't use it.
As to offending people. It is generally not a good thing to go out of your way to offend people unless you have a very good reason such as trying to shock them out of a mental loop they seem stuck in. Yet, you also shouldn't waste incredible amounts of time worrying about whether or not you may or may not offend someone.
In computer terms that is a vast memory leak that you should fix.
People are going to be offended. Whether something offends a person or not is a very personal thing. It is not something you can choose for them. You can't even know what might offend them. People can be offended by pretty much anything.
It is part of reality. When the bird flies overhead, you hear a plop, and bird feces stains your clothes. That might be offensive to you at the time.
Reality is often offensive.
Part of maturing and learning is knowing how to shrug off offense when appropriate, and knowing different responses that are productive.
If all you try to do is legislate (make laws) offense away you do not mature. It doesn't matter how developed your body may be, you will be left with a developed body piloted by an immature mind.
You might even still think things like chanting and screaming, also known as tantrums are effective. Perhaps they were in your youth if your parents gave you whatever you wanted when you threw a tantrum. In that respect your parents would have failed you. They failed to help your mind mature to be ready to face reality on your own.
If you must use laws to twist reality to avoid those things which offend you then you are simply hiding under your covers, and demanding that those who disagree with you or offend you are figments of your imagination and should go away.
If you will not consider anything you don't want to hear, because you don't like it, or because it offends you then how are you supposed to actually learn? You don't have to agree with something just because you listened. Yet only in actually listening and observing can you learn.
Calling for censorship of things you disagree with or find offensive only opens the door for things you like to be eventually censored as well. As I stated people can find anything offensive.
Furthermore, if you do eventually succeed in censoring or making speaking about certain things illegal, what avenue do you leave people that use those words? You didn't debate or discuss with them. You didn't use your words to plant seeds in their minds. You simply made it illegal for them to speak.
I have a simple question I have been asking people lately:
"Would you rather they were speaking to you with words, or do you prefer they speak to you with weapons?"
I think there are some people that are hoping for the clash of weapons so it can justify them taking more power, rounding people up, etc.
Historically that is how it has gone.
Often after they confiscated weapons from the citizenry, even before the existence of guns is when things like mass execution camps, concentration camps, and land theft occur. Yet for some reason those who do not know their history think we should do this again, and it will be different this time.
People get such a buzz by being "victimized" and "offended" that they can't stop. They get a kick out of seeing decent people backtrack and tiptoe around them so as not to offend them. It's power. It's the only power they have. They wouldn't give up that power. It's worth it to them to remain being a "victim".
@ironshield
Yes we do stand on the shoulders of giants.. thinking of these giants they all have something in common. Nobody did like them, society said they were insane and in many cases their ideas were stolen and even abused by other people or governments.
People did not change since those who do make the difference are still not accepted by society.. perhaps in 300 years time they will suddenly be called a hero or great inventor or get a prize for peace or whatsoever.
If I look around me society is changing. People want to live in a way to be independent. They cut on visiting shops and supermarkets, trade clothes and stuff. The television and all the kitchen machines are no longer important. No airco, no fridgr, no television, repairing their own house and stuff, making your own meals (nature does provide in a lot).
Using rain water and having your own water well and a wooden stove, so in summer you prepare for winter.
I agree we gave the governments too much power and it shows in everything. We gave away our right to speak, think, even raise our children in the way we like or want. We are overprotected on one hand but on the other hand we are declared unfree.
Weapons should be of help, in case of need, but reality shows different. What lays on the kitchen table or sticks in the pocket is easily grabbed and used as when you need to grab a stone, come closer and use that for a weapon to beat someone to death. It would be nice to talk first, to use words instead of bullits.. but fact is also that so many words already been said and there was no response at all! Nobody cares, the ears stay deaf or they say you are a nut and have to visit a shrink. Reality is people do not care about eachother at all. They want to survive, are raised by society to be the strongest and will fight you to death to make that come true.
That is the best way to describe today. We should ride on the shoulders of our ancestors, but the arrogant postmodernist believes himself superior to his parents and grandparents, to all his ancestors, denies their origins and tries to erase them, and that is the worst mistake.
I have heard people dismiss arguments from the past, because the creators of those ideas were racist, or had some modern flaw, but the reality is this, if we dismiss all those who had a flaw in the past, then we will simply erase all the history we have , because there is not a single person who has not been racist, or sexist, or warmonger, or slaveholder, etc, etc, in our past. It was precisely because they committed all those errors that we know today that they are mistakes and we can avoid them, if we erase that history, we will undoubtedly repeat it.
Unfortunately many prefer to let themselves be guided by their emotions and not for the reasons, and if they succeed, the only thing they will achieve is an atrocious regression to all those we have learned from the past.
That's why sometimes prosperous times raises weak people. They're over protected and that's dangerous. Someone truly evil could easily take over them.
great article . I loved that picture. I feel great to be a fan of Elon musk . he got place with those legends.
This is really deep concept and you raised absolutely right concern, first of all we have to understand our history because our history can let us know the way of living, thinking, evolution and culture and it's really important to learn these all aspects of history because that will give you an essence of your belonging and if some improvements need then we can adopt new improvements and that's how we enter into the phase of evolution. But sometimes in my opinion history is taught in an false way and that's really misguide people so we have to stay away from the false sayings and speculations and we have to do the deep research because the real truth is always found into the deep. Our history is example for our future so do the correct things today so that our today will become example for future. Thanks for sharing and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂
I was grateful when I got my slider and could spread out voting, but this post gets 100%!
One of the most impacting paradigm shifts I have had was realizing how different real life is depending on how you were raised and what your world view actually is. This would be a very sad existence if I was the one who defined it for everyone. I hear you asking people to stop trying to define the world, according to their view, for everyone else.
If people were less sensitive, fewer would melt.
More time would be spent on achievement and less time/energy wasted on whining.
History has written a lot about topics which are really good to see. I think you will be good enough to present these things that we mean to thank you. In this way, sharing all the posts with us, to tell us these things, I think we should understand a lot from here that we did not know about now I got to know them. From now on I think we will remember these things and we had a lot to learn about these things from now on we have learned.
ive never heard the saying before but this is ALL too true.
Demanding that only certain classes of people can be armed is a medieval mindset. The ruling classes of the feudal system made it illegal for the lower classes to own swords or armor. This is why peasant revolts are represented by pitchforks and torches and were so rarely successful.
What we are seeing today is a casting off of a thousand years of momentum towards liberty and equality for a return to a feudal caste system of yoked subjugation. We are watching masses of maleducated, intellectually undernourished and emotionally stunted sycophants mewling for someone else make their world a better place and willing to accept tyranny if its promises them temporary comfort. Tragic does not begin to describe it.
The coercive collectivists who believe the returning autocracy will be comprised of altruistic philosopher politicians that will take care of them if they are offended enough will be the first to be dealt with when they hinder the productivity of the system as it profits their resurrected lords. First use the useful idiots to eliminate the opposition, then eliminate the useful idiots before someone else can make use of them against the new regime. Some people refuse to learn, some never had the chance, either way...
The number of lemmings jumping off the backs of giants right now is mind-boggling. There is nobody waiting to catch them. They have reached terminal velocity.