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As I look upon the world and reflect on the current dilemmas facing our Environment and developing within the political arena, a recurring question continually rises within me: Why do so many people not realize the reality of our present situation? I have struggled with this question, trying to understand it, searching for the answer. Do they live in a bubble? Why can they not see the truth? Then, one day it occurred to me that maybe some are not able to see it, not willing to see it. Maybe they do exist in a bubble, a warm safe place where reality is perceived by personal experience and driven by the basic instinct of survival and some realities just cannot be accepted. Maybe they are products of an isolated environment, an insular world. The real question becomes, then, how do we break them out of the bubble to face reality?
The Bubble's beginnings
We are all products of our environment. It is the arena within which we develop as people. This environment ultimately determines our perception and understanding of the world around us. It sets the stage for our interests and social interconnections. Given the proper guidance and exposure to more developed philosophies, many learn the lost arts of perception, intuition and awareness of the natural world as well as the social interconnectedness so intrinsic to survival. They can learn how to welcome complex reasoning into their own worlds, their individual bubbles but help is necessary.
The stimuli surrounding us, in the developmental stages of our human existences, ultimately determines the extent to which we relate to the world and is largely dependant on which type of environment we were raised in. Quite often, it is the determining factor in the way we interact within the macrocosm of our Earthly existence.
The strata of environmental influence is very deep with the outer most layer representing limited exposure while the deepest encompassing the greater world of experience and understanding. Each layer of the strata exists as a type of "bubble" where ideas and impressions reach to the edges of the individuals known world. Each of our spheres of thinking, personal development and interactions with other people often are limited to the knowledge and experience developed within this realm. The world is perceived and accepted based on several factors from basic survival to intellectual curiosity and all stem from these initial influences.
As we develop in utero, we essentially exist within our first bubble. Upon arriving into this world, we are met with bright light and an alien existence. Our bubble gives way to a second Earth bound one which begins as a malleable sphere of imagination and endless possibility. The stratum is quite deep in these initial stages of existence but over time, it begins to harden if the mind is not challenged with new information and taught to be open to new ideas.
The people around us and the natural world within which we grow ultimately determine how we function within the larger stratum. The richer the environment, the more diverse and informed we are as people and the more in tune with the greater macrocosm we become. Conversely, the more isolated the environment, the more apt we are to have a narrow view of reality.
The latter, depraved environment is best depicted by the case of the feral child. It is where offspring is left to develop in an environment without contact with people. These children live in a particular type of bubble where they only have experiences with limited stimuli. As they develop, they haven't any idea of bigger issues. The world around them is limited to animal instincts and survival mechanisms. They are the perfect example of what is know as an insular existence. The particular microcosm within which they develop inhibits them from communicating or functioning in what we deem as a "normal" society.
Surprisingly, many "normal" people have experienced similar environmental isolation. They were raised in a limited environment, a world of simplicity, where the only thoughts are of clothes, sports, eating, social acceptance, etc. They essentially function within a larger bubble than the feral child but it is philosophically similar by nature. These people have had limited exposure to the teachings of the mind. Some of course, have genetic limitations but the capable ones, those who can learn, have suffered an injustice at the hands of those responsible for opening their minds. The capacity to learn, to accept reality, to stay informed has been successfully bred out of them. They have lost touch with learning, with intuition, with the innate abilities of humankind to commune with nature and other members of the social macrocosm.
On the other side of this equation, some people have been blessed with connections to the diverse spectra life has to offer. They have been nurtured by parents who themselves exist in the larger spectrum. They are subjected to being open minded, reading philosophy and enjoying art and education. They live within a world of perception, a world of education. The bubble within which they exist has stayed malleable and has expanded to encompass a great many levels of the spectrum. Unfortunately, too many people today have become encompassed by the smaller bubbles of existence limiting their ability to see through the walls of their limitations and have been left isolated, away from the world outside.
The Reality of the Bubble
Life in the bubbles of the shallow stratum is extremely subjective. Any opinions, data interpretation and regurgitations are centered around the teachings of an insular world. Facts are dismissed when they conflict with the preconditioned opinions. When a person in this realm of existence is confronted with contradictory data they become combative. This phenomenon is not just related to informational data either. It comes also in the form of religious beliefs, racial origins, sexual orientations and political affiliations. When anything enters the bubble that appears to cause doubt or insecurity in their screened reality, it is shut out, disregarded, dismissed as crazy or inaccurate. This is the reality of the world today.
As the level of information available to the general public becomes more and more convoluted, I cannot help but think we are being led down the Rabbit Hole. Alice saw wondrous things there and along the journey, she found something within herself to release her from the social dilemma she was suffering. The reality is though, that the hole was a prison of fantasy, filled with the dreams of a time of innocence, a time lost, a time that had abandoned her or, maybe she abandoned them. Either way, reality crept into her microcosm and the bubble denied the truth of it, leaving her in a spinning conundrum of existence. The bubble was safely rooted in the hole, though. It was the reflection of childhood, of hope, of imagination. Sometimes, the bubble is a beautiful dream but, breaking free, can easily become the nightmare.
The first step to breaking out of our bubbles is in coming to a clear understanding of humanity and the goals we must make together. We must find a common ground, one without greed and profit as the center of purpose. We must break from the dream of a world within preconceived notions of a life of luxury, of Disney-like fantasy. There is no reality down the Rabbit Hole, only delusion. The longer we spend in this alternate world, the longer we spend away from the responsibility that has been given to us as the keepers of Nature. We must envelop, with all of our hearts, the true meaning of existence for one and all: Survival of the species through preservation of our only Earth.
I believe that many of the controlling factions in our society prefer people live in the top most layers of existence. It seems they have deliberately limited our children's exposure to art, music and even physical stimulation to such an end. They have taken education and used it to envelope our children's minds in pointless endeavors. Slowly, they have created a limiting environment dictating that our children be taught to think within the shallow stratum. The goal now, which needs to be taken up by those of us who are able, is to help those who are otherwise incapable on their own, to realize the dangers of life within the bubble.
There are larger bubbles though, to which individuals gravitate. In mathematics we call these bubbles within the larger whole subsets. The larger whole envelops the subset bubbles and files them within a defined space of opinion which represents a quasi-collective set of beliefs. Some of these wholes are represented by religious factions, political groups, conspiracy theorists, academics, elitists, fundamentalists, the list goes on and on. This is the natural inclination of the tribal spirit within the natural survival instincts of the human animal. Unfortunately, some tribal leaders only desire to feed upon the smaller bubbles, to control them like puppets on a string.
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