Bacon Scrapins – “Everyone’s a Philosopher”
by Barry S. Wolfe
Bacon Scrapins are the little bits of meat left in the greasy fry pan. They’re tasty, but the ‘nutrition’ needs searching for. This tale is a bacon scrapin.
You can ask anyone, in any situation, and they’ll have an opinion. Trust me, I know!
Everyone knows what is “good, right, fair, just, the way things ought-to-be” in any situation. That’s probably a good thing – it shows we’re thinking about stuff. Maybe.
What happens, though, when each of us stops thinking about others’ ideas and we close our minds to alternative considerations?
I’m not talking about “alternative facts” when someone reverses the meaning of words to intentionally ignore reality – like ‘that barking sound is coming from my neighbour’s cat’, or a thousand people were in my backyard for a BBQ’. “Alternative facts” are just lies.
I might be including “conspiracy theories” like a group of international elites controlling the world’s governments, industry and media in order to establish dominance over everyone in the world. Or ‘ID microchips implanted into pets to track them are being miniaturized and injected into human blood to control our brains’. Or ‘political and media elites are conspiring to replace these people with immigrants’. Or ‘the election was stolen’, or ‘fluoride has been a way to dispose of industrial waste’, etc. These disregard the evidence of objective truth.
It’s a researched fact that 50% of Americans believe at least one medical conspiracy, 48% believe in a “deep state” conspiracy to rule the world, 30% believe the 1969 moon landing was faked, and only 66% of millennials believe the earth is round. Have you heard the one that there are some in Kitchener, Ontario, who believe that the 118th British Battalion, stationed in Kitchener during World War I, is still present and controlling local politics?
This approach to digesting information is not due to a lack of ‘education’. It may be, though, what kind of education? There may be a low level of scientific literacy, and analytical thought processes. But it’s said to be more of a distrust of authorities and institutions. There’s a growing gap between the decision-makers and the “us”? A lot of misinformation comes from the internet and postings can be placed by anyone with no formal experience or credibility on the topic.
Maybe we believe what we want to believe. Maybe we are predisposed to being receptive to anything that provides a simple answer to a complex question, or provides direction where we are uncertain, or reinforces an impulse we’ve been hiding. Maybe we respond positively to anyone who pays us any close attention and makes us feel good about ourselves – sincerely or with an agenda?
Maybe because we each believe we know what is “good, right, fair and just”, we also know what is true and false, what is real and fake. Does that mean, then, that everyone’s a philosopher?
You can believe what you want, but whatever you do, if you visit my neighbourhood, don’t bring your cat.
I can’t stand the racket of cats’ barking!
NOTE: Characters’ names in the Bacon Scrapins tales are fictional.
You may send appropriate email comments to the writer at thisiswilmot@gmail.com