Blissfully and Oh So Natrually Ignorant

We get these ideas of how we “should” be, a variation of who we “should” be. Such can only be based on ideas outside of ourselves. To the one who is functioning as who s/he is, how could such an idea arise? There is no impetus for it. One is as one is, why would there arise any idea to the contrary? Such an inkling, then, can only arrive from some source outside of a person. This outside force may come disguised as some sort of authority, or from the same, thus making its idea(s) viably legitimate and bearing substance.

Such outside(outside denoting ideas foreign to the natural state of the human being prior to the introduction of notions) influence casts doubt regarding one’s idea of self. It casts a shadow on the contentment of being one as one is and has always been, which, heretofore, has served it impeccably.

Along comes the dark shadow casting its abstractions as one throws a net from the shore for fish bait. It impregnates incertitude into the mind of one and raises wonder as to the legitimacy of one’s existence up to this point. At the least, this preying upon the natural wonder of the human mind inserts a sense of lacking, the idea that one may be so much more than she or he presently is.

Now then, these carnival hawkers promise new and improved lives all around. One must but pay a price of acceptance and fidelity to the cause. Blind obeyance is one price, and in today’s modern western culture no doubt there is some type of currency exchange as well.

This writer’s intellection of human instinctual knowledge(HIK) rejects the notion that there is some magic knowledge outside of what we humans are born with. Why would one not be born complete as the organism that she or he is? Is the lion born incomplete? What about a humpback whale? Whose religious or philosophical canons are needed by these “wild” creatures to perfect them? So then, being born with all (sub-intellectual)knowledge necessary to existence as a homo sapien, I establish that any other concept or gathering of ideas is superfluous to basic hominid existence. They cannot not be.

All “outside” cogitations are multi-faceted abstractions slung about akin to an artist slinging paints onto a bare canvas. This analogy of the blank canvas is fitting when comparing it to a blank mind. Your writer here rejects the notion of being born “as a blank canvas.” One’s mind IS blank, granted, as regards the teachings and trappings of the society into which she or he is born into. Even school subjects are add-ons to the natural knowledge one is until touched by usually unavoidable outside influences. There still, even then, exists the blank canvas, it’s just been adulterated.

Let one be careful not to look at the infant’s mind as in some way deficient because there is space within it unpopulated with outside teachings. It would seem that this is a normal approach: that baby humans must be filled in their heads as well as their bellies to survive. Having witnessed the birth of a daughter in the delivery room, your scribe was simply overwhelmed with the feeling that I had just witnessed a miracle. Not in any religious sense, but the very idea that two single cells, invisible to the eye, formed into this perfect little humanoid who just debuted in my stunned presence. It was, more appropriately, a celebration within my natural essence of the perfection of Nature.

Maybe this concern with always wanting to fill others has to do with us not being able to simply leave things(and others) alone. We’re always meddling about. An article in Psychology Today suggests that humans who are busier are happier. Here’s an example that came to my mind: say one is involved in religion. Perhaps participating in, maintaining and proselytizing that religion is busy work for that one and provides happiness due to the work as well as denoting a sense of purpose(Religion came to mind as I was penning this story, it could be any number of causes). Religion is and has always been a strong influence but is no different than ideas of nationalism and the like.

A problem that occurs is when one’s busy-happy activities invades the right to privacy and non-botherness(added to dictionary :o) of the girl or boy, woman or man, minding their own business and living their afore undisturbed lives. Perhaps the pre-disturbed folks are quite content not being busy nor having a busy mind, for that matter. It could be that the girl/boy woman/man enjoy silence and solitude within their skulls and have no intention of having either be disturbed.

According to an article on child cognitive development there are four stages of development. Children enter a Formal Operational Stage at ages 11 and older. In this stage, “children are able to use logic and to solve problems, view the world around them, and plan for the future.” In the preceding Concrete Operational Stage encompassing ages 7 through 11, it’s stated that children “become less egocentric, and begin to understand that not everyone shares their thoughts, beliefs, nor feelings.”

From around seven years onward to eleven years of age, there appears to be a vulnerability of children as to the influence of outside ideas and concepts. Some say that around the age of 11 onward the child begins to get more into logical thinking and begins to grasp abstract thoughts. Up until then, that process has been developing within the child’s brain. It’s no wonder that the propagandists of religions, philosophy, education systems, government and the like make their moves around and about age 5 onward. Many of these protagonists are educated in child development and cleverly design their approaches accordingly. It goes without saying that product developers and marketers helped write the manuals. Now there are algorithms to sell ideas and products with mathematical precision to the young: all mixed in with the rest of the mentioned paint colors slung at blank canvases. See Facebook.

It seems that we have become a society of hybrids. There is the basic human model creature of Nature, as it arrives, physically functioning. Then there is the societal model, which is the blueprint for the ideal, eh, citizen let’s say. Over time, in carefully orchestrated step-by-step indoctrinations, the Nature model assumes societal model traits and becomes a functioning member of society and its many facets. The operating system on the hard drive of Nature model is eventually re-programmed with apps and updates… all of that. And now, at last, the masterpiece is completed, so let us stand back and look at the canvas as it appears now.

Is there any wonder that there is so much stress in people’s lives today? So much noise? So much nervous disturbance? Your scribe here just envisioned a tiger pacing relentlessly up and down, up and down, up and down in a small cage. Such seems a fitting analogy. That’s us, “just rats in a cage” as the Smashing Pumpkins wrote in one of their hits. “But where is the cage?”, one may query. Right between your ears.

We have become natural creatures living unnatural lives, as the tiger which belongs in the wild and not in a cage. The solitude and silence of our natural state — our heritage — has been invaded since our childhoods. Many of us resisted, of course: the rebellious child who does not want to go to school or is a perpetual discipline case. Usually, the aberrant systems win out or severely punishes the rebels.

These aberrations are totally alien to existence in the natural world. As it is, the truest course one can set upon is not to discover the “right” religion nor philosophy — not to “find” the answers — but to, instead, strip away such notions which one has picked up along her/his life’s journey to the point of this realization. All of these “extras” are NOT innate to the human animal and thus is one best served by rejecting and ejecting them. Perhaps it’s time to begin a process of deleting ALL of the exterior programs that have been downloaded over time and simply being as we all began:

blissfully and oh so naturally ignorant.