Pretty Real Behind the Veil

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/08/29/the-making-of-a-child-prodigy/

Looking different or functioning counter to cultural expectations, even those that trigger biased expectations says nothing about potential of the one labelled, nor of whether the mainstream or majority has a clue about any if it. Not that they can’t , but the eyes see what the mind seeks to believe things mean for most people and while biased superficial expectations may align with reality sometimes, they are more often lazy brain muscle shortcuts that have little to do with reality and more damaging than helpful, though typical humans may never look back and reconsider a previously invested opinion, revising to take into account accurate information.

They are the same ones that sit on their hands and predict failure and other negative outcomes when they don’t know enough to even have an opinion, AND don’t know enough to know that they don’t know enough to have an informed opinion.

That’s why naysayers have always been interesting to me up to a point, but after that point I tend to think “blah blah blah “in my mind, as they are saying nothing useful or helpful or persuasive in a factual rational manner. Even when they are regurgitating some factual variation of “that’s just the way it is”, they fail to take into account other possibilities that they likely cannot even fathom. They think they either know the answers or rely on some other designated “expert” or “professional”, who likely is also not exploring alternatives that are not part of their usual pattern. They are simply mouthing and propagating intuitive biases. They don’t look outside of their respective boxes, and are not receptive to new information , and sometimes they exercise power over another persons/child’s life to their detriment, unless there’s someone who trusts the person or they’ve got someone that tells them relentlessly that they might be wrong, while staying open themselves to new information.

This may indeed be more labor intensive for people who aren’t compensated or enculturated to enable or motivate them to give that much effort to looking at what is outside of their own bias buckets, so I understand why they hold to standard labels, but thank God for those who question authority when authority is wrong, and are wiling/able to update their mental software with new information, open to seeing what is there vs what they expect!

I know myself and I know other things and I know there are gaps and new information that may prove that my perspective needs revising, and I have no ego invested in being right; I am invested in being right in my understanding by learning new things to get it right, but when I do know something is right or wrong, I trust my knowledge, when it IS superior to other views. If that applies to benefit only a minority of lives, it’s still worth it to me to stand up, as every single life is valuable , and equally worthy of getting it right.

This kid is all the proof that I could possibly need to reinforce my intrinsic commitment, even if it didn’t apply to myself also (which it does /did). Getting it right and adjusting with new information , making the effort for every human being possible is worth making any effort necessary, up to and including everything I have in me, to fight for that, no matter who the person is.

Why? Because that person may be the one that will change the world in a significant or great way, big or small, so long as they aren’t blocked by others’ negative bias or dug- in ignorance.

How many prodigies who gave their genius to improve the world for us all, maybe saved us from ourselves or might have been kept from turning that genius against the good, who might have been lost to the world if the popular views at the time and the experts were accepted without question?

How many people of letters in high positions in institutions of higher knowledge have effectively destroyed what might have been great contributors with their enormous egos and bias filters?? How may have those with authority and power killed off? It makes me shudder to imagine.

Not all great thinkers or doers have the fierce tenacity to fight on, adapt, keep trusting and believing in themselves, and keep swimming upstream while others keep trying to shoot them down, for whom it is enough to do it BECAUSE they KNOW they are doing the right, if unpopular, thing?? How many are willing to stay the course despite the isolation and rejection and even malicious efforts to keep them back where some majority thinks they belong?

If they are as tenacious as I am, the challenge is to stay open , but still stay the course if it is right and eventually it becomes less effortful for others, to allow for some new possibility or information if only to make me go away and not waste any more of their time. It becomes a test of whether one wants to live with the chronic and painful thorn in their paw that I will become when it’s important enough to me, or else choose to endure the lesser discomfort of coming to the table and waste no more pain on the thorn that I otherwise remain. I much more enjoy being a contributor to a team effort than a ball and chain on a bunch of stubborn but wrong “bucket people”.

There’s always a cost for fighting, though, so I wish that it wasn’t so difficult sometimes to penetrate the ignorance of lemming types and their clueless authorities upon which they rely and behind whom they hide from a problem , especially when the information is right in front of them, often in their own rules, published wisdom, and guidelines.

For now , at least, it’s easier to jump into the fray when I have the ability to seek respite in solitude, when needed, to recharge my batteries.