part of the problem today is that we have these notions that
are myths, habits, prejudice and superstitions and we think that
they are a accurate and complete understanding of the world…
but they ae myths and habits and prejudice and superstitions that
stand in place of our true understanding of the world…
we have these myths, habits and prejudices that we think, think
are the true representations of the world when in fact, they are not…
so we have to reach some true understanding of the world…
so how do we know? for example, someone may believe that
the moon is made up of green cheese… that is a myth or habit or
prejudice or superstition that a person believes… does that false
understanding really harm a person? Not really because how can you
turn this false idea of the moon being made of green cheese into action?
you can’t… you just have a false belief about reality… the belief is
different then the reality of the situation… think of beliefs as a guide,
a map of reality… and the map that you have is some representation of
the actual reality…is belief in capitalism actually capitalism?
is a map actually the terrain? no, it is a map of the ground…
now maps can be accurate or not accurate depending on how
close to reality they show what is actually on the ground…
if your map shows us a lake and there is no lake, then the map
you have is a very bad representation of reality… to be accurate,
the map must show us the lakes that exists and the rivers and the hills
and the roads… if your map doesn’t show us that, it is a very bad map
and won’t allow you to traverse the reality of the land… this idea
of a map is the same for our idea’s and the reality of the situation…
if your own personal map, which can be about love or hate or ideologies like
capitalism or communism or a career… is wrong, then you don’t have an
accurate map of reality…now let us return to our idea of myths and
habits and prejudices and superstitions… those myths and habits and
prejudices and superstitions you have, are they close to the reality of life
or are they totally different then reality? in other words, let us take a common
myth, the myth of rugged individualism… we have this myth that one man
created his universe… for example, an example of rugged individualism
is that Bill Gates built Microsoft all by himself… Microsoft exist because
he did all the work and he deserves all the money/profit from Microsoft because
he did build it himself… that is one myth… and a false myth…for Gates
himself will tell you, he had help from thousands to build Microsoft…
another myth is America is the greatest country on earth… and anyone who
actually investigates this can quickly discover that this is not true…
but and this is important… how we operate or act upon this myth decides or
determines how close to reality we actually are…if we act on the idea that
America is not the greatest country in the world, we are closer to the truth,
then those who operate on the thought that America is the greatest country in the world…
in other words, if we act as if we are the greatest country in the world and makes
decisions based on this, our map as it were, then we are not operating with real
or true facts… our vision of reality is wrong because
our map, that this is the greatest in the world, is wrong…
people go wrong when they act upon their map which is wrong…
in other words, if your map, your myths and habits are wrong,
then your actions are going to be wrong…
and we face this all the time… we have false information about the world,
that is it mean or cruel and if we act upon this at all times, we are acting
on false information and our actions are the wrong actions and create difficulties for us…
if the reality is different then our map of reality, we are lead wrong…
that is the danger of myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
that people mistake those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
as the truth, the reality of a situation… whereas they are a map and a wrong map
of the truth and reality…and thus we are lead to make mistakes in actions because
we are acting upon a map that is wrong…
Kropotkin