I wonder how people react the first time they hear the
phrase “Everything You Know is Wrong”. I
imagine it depends on where you are in life and how much thought you give to
it. I was high school-age when I first
heard it, though I don’t remember where I was, I know it wasn’t in school. I was reading a book or magazine or newspaper
article that suggested the scariest thing in the world would be going on an
Indiana Jones-like quest to find ultimate knowledge and after enduring
excruciating physical and mental trials, you arrive at a pristine, gleaming,
gold-covered room with a book at its center. The book contains all the
knowledge of the world. Just as you are about to crack it open, you detect
something out of the corner of your eye, turn and see that someone had already
been there, and they spray painted ‘Everything You Know Is Wrong” on the wall.
I feel like the first 14 years of my life were about
blindly learning without questioning, but slowly in high school I started to question
just about everything then once I reached college, I can remember thinking that
a lot of what I thought I knew was wrong. Having attended Catholic Elementary
and High School, the first wall to come down was a lot of the stuff pushed by the Catholic Church. Once you start learning of the origins of Catholic doctrine
vs. the actual teachings of Christ, things become clearer that the church is screwed up. The Crusades
pretty much finalized it for me. On the historical side, once you start to examine
the concept and consequences of “Manifest Destiny”, it’s easy to cast a wary
eye on our country's “glorious” past.
It’s funny, but the reactions by older adults to me as I
would question dogma and authority tended to be a suggestion that I was being
cynical. Whatever. I knew I was being realistic. The older I get and the more I question and
really examine what’s going on in the world, the less optimistic I am. The truth about how governments and huge organizations
work is obscured and sugar-coated so that the masses will just accept what
happens and go about their business with their heads in the sand.
Unfortunately, if you keep watching and listening and digging, you can get some
answers. And you likely won’t like those
answers.
Everything you were taught is wrong.
Everything you were told is wrong.
Everything you know is wrong.
Keep your eyes and ears open, the truth is below the
surface.
