Does it Make a Difference?

What if the universe was not expanding? What would it matter? Does it make any difference if the universe was 13.6 billion years old or 20 billion years old or 4,128 years old and came into being on a Tuesday afternoon some time around 2 o’clock?

Would it make any difference to anyone if the universe never came into being; if it simply always was?

Looking ever deeper into these questions, I guess the crux of the matter is: Does how we view the universe, or our concept fo the grand scale of things, affect our behaviour And if it does, how does it?

Say you are in Europe during the dark ages and the world is simply the village you live in. You have never been anywhere other than your village. The odd person comes and goes, but that is about it. Would that affect your beliefs? Or, perhaps, you are in ancient China and there is not world or place outside of your region. Does this restriction in your movement and, more importantly, in thought determine your way of life, acceptance of the status quo or your self importance?

These situations, of being isolated, are an extension of being in a finite and transitory universe. We all know, although we don’t often think about it, that we are going to die. We know our time on this mortal plane is transitory. And, no matter how hard we try, we live in finite surroundings. We can only go so far in a lifetime.

This finite and transitory nature of our mortal existence forms the foundation of our perceptions. And how we perceive things definitely affects our behaviour. That is, all we see, hear and perceive in the world around us, including our dreams, is merely a reflection of ourselves. We personify everything in order to try to understand it or even acknowledge it. There is a trick which is used by the nefarious who have come and gone in our history. If something is so outlandish, or evil, that we could not imagine ourselves, or anyone we know, doing such a thing, then the perception of it is very hard to grasp. I am, of course, referring to the genocide and murder of tens of thousands of native children in Canada and millions of Jews in eastern Europe by Nazis in the last century. We don’t comprehend the millions killed in the killing fields of Cambodia or even the slaughter during the First World War fought for some reason that really escapes me at this time.

These things are known and most often not denied, but we do not acknowledge them. We do not comprehend them. They do not affect our daily lives and usual behaviour. The slaughter of native children through neglect and policies of the Canadian and various provincial governments still continues and nothing really will be done about it and Canadians will, perhaps, be a little upset about it for a short while, but life continues on and the populace at large will not really be affected. But hey, threaten our toilet paper supply, and the entire country loses its mind.

This is because if I can do stuff that is outside your perception, it very simply does not exist as far as you are concerned. You may see it happening right in front of you, but most will not react. If your universe is bounded by preconceptions that can restrict your universe to a set of rules, no mater how banal they may be, I can not only do anything outside of those boundaries without your notice or comprehension, I can control you.

Such is the nightmare within Schopenhauer. Such is the nightmare of our world. Such is the small box into which we have locked ourselves with our minds living within a finite and transitory universe. It makes a difference.

For example, is it absurd to think that some organization, person or entity, could establish a bizarre mind control, or social control program, to modify scientific research, humanitarian academia, the media, education system and global governmental bureaucracies to create a perception of the universe, both your local and cosmic universe, and have humanity wander through the darkness of ignorance in their belief that this is a way to control us all? Or is it that we have fallen into such a state by default? Perhaps we all just went down a particular path, sometimes by being taken advantage of and sometimes leading the way ourselves. Perhaps our planet is being run by a computer program, or algorithm, that doesn’t work all that well. If something has taken over the world it doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of running it.

However, the great lie, the promoted fantasy, the belief of each and every one of us, is that such is the way of the world. Such is life and that there is nothing anyone, particularly you or I, can do about it.

I find that somewhat amusing.