Perception 2006
-By Darien S. Acosta
The visionary poet William Blake famously wrote in the year 1790 that 'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite.' This is very much a simple line of poetry but therein lies its brilliance. For even when taken out of context this simple line would appear to be a summary of mankind's fundamental objective and subjective truths.
Yet what are these truths? For that matter 'What is truth'?
In the Platonic sense 'truth' is merely a representation of reality in its most apparent form, what we would today call an objective truth. A truth which can be made visible, is verifiable, and can be consented upon and deemed acceptable by all normal human beings. Hence, this truth, the objective truth in its true essence is basically an idea that cannot be refuted.
'Truth' for the Socratics, on the other hand, was a vastly different creature and was to be held as an ideal for humanity. Socrates' truth was to be described as a representation of 'the ultimate', the all and end all, which is today known as a subjective truth. Subjective in the sense that it was a personal truth that could only be accomplished through the means of an individual personally undertaking quest and struggle; simply for a reward acquired through meaning. The meaning was usually somehow derived from the mere accumulation of experiences or knowledge.
Thus, it was these definitions and philosophies of 'truth' that were deeply engraved into the westernized human psyche by the likes of Plato and Socrates. But what if we ask ourselves as a species this very same question a third time...What is truth? What answer would we muster in today's modernized society?
If we were to ask we would find the only answer society could offer us for such a question is that the 'Truth' that so fueled our great philosophers of the past; the truth that was so highly revered and sought after simply does not exist. Centuries of history has taught us so. Indeed today the 'Truth' is but a word with no more importance or significance in nature than any other muttered sound and whose only value lies as a nostalgic relic in the eternal quest to provide man with a reason for being.
It was religion and much of culture that was intentionally created to provide a reason for being, on the collective social level. The arts originally as a mode of free expression to log the world's great emotional perils and emulate beauty created, most likely subconsciously, as a reason for being on the individualized emotional level. The sciences themselves created to systemize and structure the information created by human kind as a reason for being on the purely mental level. All of human history is not so simply a quest for survival, but a quest for a reason to survive, a reason for being.
All of us now know that there are no absolute truths. Everything humans have created in search of meaning have all eventually been begrudged to a fault. Our original cultures mired by subcultures which would soon become cultures themselves leaving the others meaningless. Our religions all so subject to rampant fanaticism poisoning the hope for any prosperous future. Our arts which became commercialized and now serves as a valuable means for controlling the human psyche. Our sciences, which while exponentially progressing in some forms only seem to offer us solid proof that there is no such thing as truth, that there is nothing static, that nothing is as it seems, and anything can and will happen... eventually.
Yet even today the concept of truth somehow still retains an unchanging Platonic and Socratic definition and indeed lives on, perhaps ever powerfully, through what has been called media. Media by definition which entails anything that can reach a large human audience and create a definite impression. Media which has been designed to heavily alter the perceptions of its subjects through various means. Media which has the old notion of truth attached to its collar since it is media itself that continues to propagate this false idea for its own purposes.
If people believe that various truths are possible and exist, they are then susceptible to having their perceptions influenced by media and vice versa.
In our advanced civilizations media is all pervasive, invading the minds of people through information based technology and advertising simply to alter their realities. This a fact of being. Media is a powerful industry and as such (Just as finance, mechanics, and electronics) is a necessity in providing the edge in various disputes and warfare between nations.
Media is used to shape world opinion on issues through techniques no longer simply labeled propaganda but scientifically divided between the realms of public relations and advertising. Our information technologies, marketed to us as entertainment are all connected and exist as a ruse to reach and influence the minds of the majority; mainly for money.
When wars are fought money is intentionally spent to directly influence the minds of people. PR groups such as the Lincoln Group and Rendon Group are contracted by government and paid $300 million dollars to place skewed and blatantly false news articles in top Iraqi newspapers... but I digress.
William Blake once famously wrote that 'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite.' Genius British scientist and writer Aldous Huxley agreed with Blake when he titled one of his books 'The Doors of Perception' meanwhile singer and songwriter Van Morrison also agreed when he named his band 'The Doors.'
If human perception was made anew then humanity could see without implicit bias that they have been all immersed in a system which exists without justification, cannot be understood, and has been placed somewhere between an infinite amount of dwindling subsystems and an increasing amount of supersystems all somewhat in proportion...
There are no such thing as words.
-By Darien S. Acosta
The visionary poet William Blake famously wrote in the year 1790 that 'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite.' This is very much a simple line of poetry but therein lies its brilliance. For even when taken out of context this simple line would appear to be a summary of mankind's fundamental objective and subjective truths.
Yet what are these truths? For that matter 'What is truth'?
In the Platonic sense 'truth' is merely a representation of reality in its most apparent form, what we would today call an objective truth. A truth which can be made visible, is verifiable, and can be consented upon and deemed acceptable by all normal human beings. Hence, this truth, the objective truth in its true essence is basically an idea that cannot be refuted.
'Truth' for the Socratics, on the other hand, was a vastly different creature and was to be held as an ideal for humanity. Socrates' truth was to be described as a representation of 'the ultimate', the all and end all, which is today known as a subjective truth. Subjective in the sense that it was a personal truth that could only be accomplished through the means of an individual personally undertaking quest and struggle; simply for a reward acquired through meaning. The meaning was usually somehow derived from the mere accumulation of experiences or knowledge.
Thus, it was these definitions and philosophies of 'truth' that were deeply engraved into the westernized human psyche by the likes of Plato and Socrates. But what if we ask ourselves as a species this very same question a third time...What is truth? What answer would we muster in today's modernized society?
If we were to ask we would find the only answer society could offer us for such a question is that the 'Truth' that so fueled our great philosophers of the past; the truth that was so highly revered and sought after simply does not exist. Centuries of history has taught us so. Indeed today the 'Truth' is but a word with no more importance or significance in nature than any other muttered sound and whose only value lies as a nostalgic relic in the eternal quest to provide man with a reason for being.
It was religion and much of culture that was intentionally created to provide a reason for being, on the collective social level. The arts originally as a mode of free expression to log the world's great emotional perils and emulate beauty created, most likely subconsciously, as a reason for being on the individualized emotional level. The sciences themselves created to systemize and structure the information created by human kind as a reason for being on the purely mental level. All of human history is not so simply a quest for survival, but a quest for a reason to survive, a reason for being.
All of us now know that there are no absolute truths. Everything humans have created in search of meaning have all eventually been begrudged to a fault. Our original cultures mired by subcultures which would soon become cultures themselves leaving the others meaningless. Our religions all so subject to rampant fanaticism poisoning the hope for any prosperous future. Our arts which became commercialized and now serves as a valuable means for controlling the human psyche. Our sciences, which while exponentially progressing in some forms only seem to offer us solid proof that there is no such thing as truth, that there is nothing static, that nothing is as it seems, and anything can and will happen... eventually.
Yet even today the concept of truth somehow still retains an unchanging Platonic and Socratic definition and indeed lives on, perhaps ever powerfully, through what has been called media. Media by definition which entails anything that can reach a large human audience and create a definite impression. Media which has been designed to heavily alter the perceptions of its subjects through various means. Media which has the old notion of truth attached to its collar since it is media itself that continues to propagate this false idea for its own purposes.
If people believe that various truths are possible and exist, they are then susceptible to having their perceptions influenced by media and vice versa.
In our advanced civilizations media is all pervasive, invading the minds of people through information based technology and advertising simply to alter their realities. This a fact of being. Media is a powerful industry and as such (Just as finance, mechanics, and electronics) is a necessity in providing the edge in various disputes and warfare between nations.
Media is used to shape world opinion on issues through techniques no longer simply labeled propaganda but scientifically divided between the realms of public relations and advertising. Our information technologies, marketed to us as entertainment are all connected and exist as a ruse to reach and influence the minds of the majority; mainly for money.
When wars are fought money is intentionally spent to directly influence the minds of people. PR groups such as the Lincoln Group and Rendon Group are contracted by government and paid $300 million dollars to place skewed and blatantly false news articles in top Iraqi newspapers... but I digress.
William Blake once famously wrote that 'If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite.' Genius British scientist and writer Aldous Huxley agreed with Blake when he titled one of his books 'The Doors of Perception' meanwhile singer and songwriter Van Morrison also agreed when he named his band 'The Doors.'
If human perception was made anew then humanity could see without implicit bias that they have been all immersed in a system which exists without justification, cannot be understood, and has been placed somewhere between an infinite amount of dwindling subsystems and an increasing amount of supersystems all somewhat in proportion...
There are no such thing as words.
