FACT (as decided by me) people are afraid, and therefore shy away from, the unknown.
How I came up with this conclusion: in the sixth grade, after watching a vampire movie, I was afraid to go to sleep. I analyzed why and found that, with the lights off, I couldn't see what was coming, it didn't take a large jump of intuition to see the symbolism in that. So, I came up with a little example of my own:a light in a dark room, if you were in a dark room you would be drawn to that light rather than stand in the dark. There's also the proverbial "Light at the end of the tunnel" using light to symbolize knowledge-heaven-and everyone is drawn to that light.
Our planet is in the dark-the universe-the unknown.
So I begin:
The imagination of a child is a powerful tool, one to be used with caution and care lest even more powerful ideas be wrought and therefore released into the world. I, myself, dear blogger, am guilty of possessing an imagination of such debilitating capabilities, and the suppositions that I have wrought due to this overactive tool began in the sixth grade in responce to the unfortunate mixture of a late night vampire movie and said imagination. I give testament now, my dear fellows, to the might of imagination on the young and budding mind of a searching pre-teen. After watching this horror film containing blood sucking fiends and night horrors
DONE:
The imagination of a child is a powerful tool, one to be used with caution and care lest even more powerful ideas be wrought and therefore released into the world. I myself, dear blogger, am guilty of possessing an imagination of such debilitating capabilities, and the suppositions that I have wrought due to this overactive tool began in the sixth grade in response to the unfortunate mixture of a late night vampire movie and said imagination. I give testament now, my dear fellows, to the might of imagination on a young and developing mind.
As previously stated, my first glimmers of real thought, startling in their swift yet infantile intensity, was the product of a late night horror flick. The contents of this movie are mere shadows in my memory and something I deem irrelevant to our conversation; they served their purpose by breaking through that gossamer curtain of juvenile thought and introducing me to a realm of possibility, of unchartered concepts, and of pristine ideas, as yet uncluttered by prejudice and progress and still the pure, innocent, yet shapeless, visions of the young. The sleep deprivation I experienced in lieu of this phantasmal film produced in me the urge to examine the irrational trepidation against the murky shadows and sinister darkness the night cast. In this analysis of the anonymous cause of fright, I considered, why the dark? Not for the first time did the increasingly redundant realization that, if anything were to happen, it would matter not if the clown lamp next to my bed was shining cheerily or currently hibernating; so why the dark?
Suddenly it struck me, and the idea seems so ingenuous now, that people fear that which they can’t see, they fear the ideas their minds can’t grasp, they fear the unexplainable, and darkness represents all of these things because you can’t see in the dark. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a vast leap of intuition to perceive the symbolism between dark and knowledge (or moreover the lack of knowledge), otherwise dear bloggers, I might not have an entry for you today, I might, instead, be salivating upon some picture of a teen-magazine hunk, or allowing my brain to decompose by watching reality television.
Once this connection became established in my mind, once I comprehended the accomplishment I made and the mental freedom I had achieved, I knew that I must cultivate and expand that freedom; therefore, I further advanced my idea, developing it into that which you are about to read.
Let us begin my avid readers and dear friends, with a universal definitive. The majority of people will recognize the proverbial, yet cliché, “light at the end of the dark tunnel”- an often used expression to describe the transition from life to death; from the mysteries of life into the glorious and sage afterlife. Like a moth drawn to a flame, so too are people drawn to this light and the understanding it promises. Why live in the uncertain when you can achieve ultimate understanding? Comprehension of the previously indefinite is what’s enticing about this light- the knowledge it offers is the magnetic force that tugs at its ignorant counterpart: human nature- and that is the reason people yearn for this comprehension. This is an ultimate truth about humans: because of our own inherent desire for moral reprieve, we refuse to live through life with the shady menace of ambiguity when we can illuminate our environment with the radiance of an insight tailored to fit our own comfort.
This lust for substantiating knowledge, a knowledge that agrees with our ethics, is an unconscious sin everyone suffers from, myself included; knowing all and fearing nothing because we know we’re right and, therefore, there is obviously nothing that would dare threaten us. Five and a half years ago, sitting in my dim room, I felt anxious about turning off my lamp because to do so would be to blind myself to the rather improbable vampire attack that was sure to come. Likewise, people refuse to acknowledge the dark and metaphysical around them, instead reveling in the serenity imparted by focusing on the “exquisite” truths provided by the tangible and by our “undeniable” science. The shunning of the uncomfortable, but necessary, potential prospects for future generations stunt the human population’s growth, just like not sleeping for fear of night spooks released by the dark unknown will stunt a child’s growth.
For centuries people have scorned the physically different, mocked the eccentric ideas of unrecognizable geniuses, and prosecuted those who threatened the longevity of their precious understanding with radical and confusing proposals. The human race’s grip on their comforting “knowledge” tightens with each turning century as the once heretical ideas of past times become increasingly possible, if not apparent. The feasibility that people might be born gay, that killing unborn children is publicly acceptable, that we are running out of nonrenewable energy supplies, even that people actually want to cut their hair in such extreme styles, menaces the set and “undeniable” knowledge that humans have always required. And, as I’m sure you’ve took note of dear bloggers, it is already becoming a matter of public concern that our planet floats nestled by galactic darkness, illuminated only by the resplendent, yet seemingly insufficient, star we’ve christened our sun. And so I ask of you dear bloggers, despite the promises of many a misguided politician, who will lead us out of this darkness; the darkness of human prejudice and obstinacy, and do we even want to be lead out?
