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"If everyone knows something is true, it probably isn't."
I love the bumper sticker "Subvert the dominant Paradigm"
It reminds me so much of something I have noticed over the years.
"If everyone knows something is true, it probably isn't."
We often get a pattern of concepts, assumptions and values set in our head, and we sort all the information our senses receive according to that paradigm.
Think about it, how often do you find out that you have thought something was true that wasn't?
Never happens to you? Visit snopes.com , see if what you think really is true.
My point is, if you are told it is the thing to believe, and believe it, your perception of reality will change with it. In 'normal' and 'sane' people, it is not unusual for them to believe they saw, heard, or felt something that did not happen, or vice versa.
There was even a scientific screening done of 'luck' that showed optimistic people more likely to see opportunities than pessimists in the same situation.
Did a negative attitude change reality? Did the opportunity not exist for the pessimist? Of course not, but if your paradigm says that something cannot happen, you are very unlikely to see it happen, even if it is right there
There is a lot of fuss over energy these days, and I got on line to rant and rave about ethanol. Not because I grow corn, or profit from ethanol, but because ethanol is a great motor fuel, a better fuel than gasoline, and maybe better than diesel. Ethanol can easily fit into our current infrastructure, and also works as an easily stored fuel for fuel cells cars: much safer, denser, and easier to produce than gaseous hydrogen.
Some facts to challenge your assumed store of knowledge:
The increase in petroleum prices during 2007-8 contributed to the spike in global food prices more than biofuels did.
Cellulosic ethanol - alcohol fuel made from abundant cellulose like corn cobs and stalks instead of the corn - is not some dream of the far-flung future, it is being produced now. As demand increases, the technology for making ethanol more efficiently from a greater variety of materials increases.
Cars designed to run on ethanol [flex fuel cars are a compromise] can be made as efficient as diesels.
Check out the left-hand column, cruise around, see if anything challenges you, shakes up your paradigm.
