Smoldering Straw Men

I was just sitting here sipping coffee, trying to organize my thoughts on God, the universe, and the ultimate fate of humanity as we battle against the monumental difficulties that define our age. I'm finding it hard to focus on these pathetic little things when compared to the vastness of the problems in my personal life, bills, relationships, hobbies, the outcome of quasi-scripted "reality" shows. My mind is raging against a tide of egocentric worry and doubt, even though I'm resolved to take on the most epic concepts my mind can handle.

As obvious as the preceding sarcasm is, it amazes me how distracting the everyday can be, even against the monolithic issues that constantly loom over us. We compartmentalize our world, focusing on the things that are most direct and present. We all do it. Our psychology is pretty hard wired here. The obtuse and obscure problems are ignored, because they are too intimidating or complicated. Even if the threat is the most immediate, we will still choose to focus on that which we can understand, put a face to, and grapple with directly.

Politicians and advertisers latch onto this analytic curiosity inherent in each of us and exploit it. The most complex and morally difficult questions are boiled down, distilled, and (using the word subjectively) refined to short one liners that can be digested by the populace.

That's right, for a limited time, you too can receive the one cure to the ultimate problem that philosophers, scientist, and theologians have wrestled with for centuries, in a simple little pill. No side affects, no worries, no collateral damage, just send in the one time fee of your slavish blind devotion to our way of thinking. In addition an entire lifestyle, theological belief system, or ethical platform will be thrown in at no additional charge. You can be the happy owner of a mass produced reality, tailored to you. All that is required is that you perpetually contribute to the feedback that maintains the system by not questioning the mechanics behind it.

Yeah, right.

Do me a personal solid today guys. Take your most precious belief, be it about God, abortion, gay rights, gun control, global warming, or tapioca pudding, and play devil's advocate. Attack your point of view viciously and thoroughly. Disassemble it and analyze the structure. What is the foundation? Is it logic or a logical fallacy? Was it a lesson taught by your parents, or an assumption that you formed in a time when you were still scared of the monsters under your bed.

Take the time to burn a personal straw man. Really engage with a question and decide what you truly believe and why you believe it absent of the judgement and prejudices of anyone else. It may turn out that you have no idea why you support one side of an issue, or this may only serve to strengthen your resolve. Either way you should have a more clear picture of why you hold that idea dear.

It is your idea, and something that defines you. Your actions are formed around it. You are not your possessions, or your reputation. You are your beliefs and actions. Shouldn't they receive at least as much brain time as the last viral video you ingested? You deserve more than the manicured half truths forced on you from all sides. You are fully capable of engaging life and paying attention to what is going on outside your plastic bubble, no matter what others think. We aren't beholden to a political organization or bulk subset of ideas because we have a mutual view on a single issue. We don't have to assume the identity of a group just to prove we are as radical or as much of an individual.

It is only once we take the time to purge the half truths and failed logic from ourselves that we can participate in finding universal truth. We cannot possibly hope to help the debate progress until we each stop being an echo chamber for Ceaser churning out distractions for the mob. We owe it to ourselves to reject that which is composed for mass consumption. If we then choose to engage in the debates that shape our reality, we owe it to each other to present more than the untested dogma, which we cling to in an effort to make our realities more palatable.

If we all were to honestly commit to this, imagine how quickly our own little worries would fade, and the universal condition could improve. The death of ignorance yields the world we deserve, built on the ashes of smoldering straw men.