My Personal String Theory
String theory is a Physics term and my understanding of things scientific is rudimentary at best. But hearing those words struck a chord with me. They evoke an image of how thoughts sometimes start and then just go on and on like a long piece of string. It loops every so often when light bulb moments occur and then continues, frequently winding up in unexpected places.
A recent “string” experience started when I came across William R. Brody’s address at the Johns Hopkins University 2007 commencement. He said, “…the truth shall make you free. Yet the truth will not necessarily make you successful. And most assuredly, the truth will not always make you popular.” He might have added that it may also not always make you happy.
Brody went on to talk about how living in America gives us the freedom to choose “not to know” even though we have more access to the truth than any other place in the world. He refers to this choice as “willful ignorance.” It has nothing to do with being mistaken. Rather it means giving in to “the very real and understandable human tendency to ignore or subvert facts and findings of science that discomfort us for reasons of ideology, politics, religion, or personal taste.” Brody warns against such willful ignorance as “… the herald of society’s doom. A fact, even if we do not like it, is still a fact...” Reading this speech put a loop of considerable size in my string!
That was not the end of it, because the very next day, while channel surfing, I came across John Perkins discussing his new book, "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption." There was an immediate connection to Brody’s speech. Here, certainly, was something I did not want to know about, much less believe. How could my country be a major contributor to so much misery in the world? How could we do such harm to others to further our own interests, not for our survival but for our excesses? The choice to “not know” was very tempting. It would be so easy to just deny the possibility and go no further with it. But Brody’s words were too fresh… I ordered the book.
When we look at occurrences in hindsight, we all seem to have 20/20 vision. All the clues and warning signs are so clear; we shake our heads in wonder that we could have missed them. With the string I’m now following, I need to go on to find the other loops which can bring me to the truth, even if I do not like it when I find it.
I have said in the past that I love America warts and all. This string forces me to put my money where my mouth is and it is not at all comfortable. But what kind of love is based on a choice to not know the truth - a very conditional love at best; a total lack of genuine love at worst.