The Loop of Ignorance

Are you familiar with the Re:Wild initiative? It’s a great project led by Leonardo DiCaprio and a group of scientists. Well, see for yourself.

Anyway, today I received another issue of their newsletter, and one project caught my attention. It’s "Go wild with 2 Chainz". These are just small video bites about wildlife, and you can watch it on YouTube.

In one video, I was particularly struck by a shot of a bush covered in butterflies. The shot was so beautiful that I wanted to draw it right away...

'But wait! Aren't I supposed to be afraid of these?' I thought.

Oh yes, I'm afraid of butterflies. Or at least I was. And that got me thinking…

Spiders with wings

To me, butterflies are like spiders with wings. Those legs, that "nose"... I certainly wouldn't be happy if one landed on my shoulder (despite its gorgeous colors). And even though they say, "Nobody suspects the butterfly," I definitely suspect it of all kinds of spider-like mischief.

But of course, neither butterflies nor spiders are not the bad guys. My fear does not define them in any way. It’s just nature. And probably they’re afraid of me too! They sit in the corner and say to themselves: Those legs, that nose...

As I was thinking about all of this, another association came to mind.

I’m gonna take us into deep space, just bear with me for a second. You'll see the point right away.

Let’s fly into space!

Recently, I read a great book about space which wonderfully explains the basics of the universe without using a single scary math formula. And then, by coincidence, I came across a post on the internet about an "unknown signal from space." It traveled to us from a very long distance, it repeats rhythmically, and scientists are confused about it.

You can surely imagine the avalanche of comments about aliens that immediately popped up. Among them, luckily, there were also those who argued about neutron stars, pulsars, etc. They pointed out that the mystery had been solved long ago and that this was just incomplete information taken out of context to create a sensation. Pff... which was followed by another, even wilder discussion about how governments are actually trying to hide the truth.

“Why would they immediately reject the alien theory, huh?”

”Who can be sure of something that is so far away!”

”They are trying to fool us!”

As I was reading through it, I just shook my head at how easily people slide into such discussions. And how I might have slid into it myself if I hadn't read a book on the topic before.

Just one single book was enough to open up a whole new universe (literally) of knowledge to me. I was able to reach a reasonable conclusion on my own and did not fall into the loop of ignorance. Some of those "guaranteed" arguments under the post suddenly seemed ridiculous to me.

To get a better picture

But let's go back to butterflies and spiders. I think it's the same with them. Or with any other topic.

Maybe just one good book, or a video from a good source, would be enough to get a better picture of anything. To change your thinking. To stop being afraid. So that your own thoughts would stop being ridiculous and gradually become healthier. Maybe you would even build a better relationship with nature. With the whole world.

If only…

Ahhhh. But how can one absorb all that knowledge about the world when you're interested in so many things, right? Even though I'm smart as a rocket sometimes, I really don't know the answer to this :D

I wish it were possible.

And I also wish that those who have dedicated their lives to nature and the universe will continue to write brilliant books or make videos and spark further meaningful discussions.

With love, M.

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PS: I believe in aliens too.