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.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).