[stextbox id="download" shadow="true"]I made a rather significant discovery a few years ago. I'm ashamed to admit that it took nearly seven decades to learn this, but nevertheless it is something I've learned, which I should've known many years ago. But at times, I can be a slow learner.[/stextbox]
While what I'm about to share was something I knew for several years, it really came into focus during the elections. It was then that I began thinking about the matter seriously and the more I read and the more I listened, the sharper the focus. Now, as I ponder my "discovery," the ramifications of it are rather substantial.
Indeed, serious ramifications are already visible in our nation. Ultimately, I am afraid that they may overwhelm us. That will bring multiple nightmares hitting us in multiple ways. We've already seen some of them. But, the real cause of those disasters is either misunderstood or not recognized. Blame is laid at the feet of various strawmen or nefarious bogeymen. Truth is layered over with lies, dissembling, and at times, some pretty persuasive rhetoric from credentialed spokespersons making sure we all miss the obvious. [stextbox id="alert" shadow="true" float="true" align="right" width="350"]Political Correctness has become a course in America taught by the liberal-minded segments of our population who are quick to give an "F" to anyone failing their course.[/stextbox]
Life is a Great Tutor
So, what was this amazing discovery?
It is that people, with rare exception, do not truly learn some things by instruction, but must learn some things the "hard" way. Add to that the fact that far too many people fail to take the credible instruction they have learned and properly align it with their experience. Couple to that the failure (for some, inability) of so many to include credible instruction into their life.
Learning things the "hard way" simply means one must learn certain lessons from experience as opposed to someone instructing them from a podium or from books. Now, this is not to say one cannot learn from instruction. I learned a lot about the law from instruction coming from men and women standing behind a podium, as well as being instructed from books. We all can learn in this fashion.
So, it is true that there are some folks who have and do learn very important and crucial things from credible instruction. Every pastor seeks to pass on vital information to church members every Sunday. But, we all know that far too often, many church members often ignore those instructions, important lessons for life, and suffer as a result. Their subsequent experience brings home the validity and reliability of the instructions given by the pastor. But, until their experience, they would never have learned that lesson. The message registered in the intellect, but was not adopted in the heart.
Instructions for Life Can be Good, Bad & Sometimes Ugly
Instruction has been coming at me all my life, much of it very good and very crucial to my well-being. And, like my fellow Americans, I have ignored some of it, only to one day realize that the instructions given me by others was not just good, not just valid, but at times, was essential to my well-being. [stextbox id="custom" float="true" align="right" width="350"] I have ignored some credible instructions given me to my own hurt. And, some of my willful ignorance brought hurt not just to myself, but to others.[/stextbox]
Almost all of us have people who rely on us in some way. It may range from our children, spouse, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and associates. We influence them. We are part of their experience in life. They experience from us. We can bring some life-changing lessons to these people. The question then becomes: What have we given to them? Has it been good? Bad? Negative? Positive? What effect will what we gave to others have on their life? We all hope that what we gave was good. But, too often, we all realize, in looking back from our wisdom-giving, "corrected" life experience, that the input we gave to others was not always correct. At times, we delivered lies when the truth was desperately needed.
In America, I see a vast array of people who are, by and large, uneducated. Then, there is another large segment who are under-educated. That would be our high school and college graduates. Many of the college grads are very learned in technical crafts, income-earning techniques, and in the arts, but are woefully ignorant in American History, World History, Christianity, the American legal system and in a republican form of government. (Some of them will read this and quickly conclude this is a political piece designed to promote the Republicans.) Added to that, they have an almost complete ignorance as to the world-views held by other nations, cultures and religions. Their ignorance is colossal.
America is Populated With Learned Ignorance
[stextbox id="black" shadow="true"]Our population is becoming filled with people who know very little about their government, indeed, about any government. They have no credible instruction to offset about people, about government and about how things work. [/stextbox]
They have gotten little or no credible instructions to explain their experiences in life. Many have life experiences that have skewed their ability to interpret the little good instructions they have received in life. The sad truth is that many people in America are often enveloped in rhetoric that are completely false dialogs about life.
Thus, they have coupled some of their life experiences with their ignorance gained from false 
rhetoric and arrived at conclusions that have absolutely no connection with reality.Their ability to accurately or even reasonably project, that is to arrive at conclusions based on looking down the road and playing out the future, is absent. Instead, they look down the road and base their “projections” of the future on someone else’s rhetoric and philosophies which has been substituted for their own ideas and They don’t even know they are merely parroting someone else’s rhetoric, false philosophies, and ideas. They don’t own their ideas. They’ve merely borrowed. Or, perhaps closer to the truth, they’ve done, in essence, what the stereotypical homeless woman pushing a shopping cart around does: they pick their “truth” from the dumpster nearest them.
[stextbox id="yellow" shadow="true"]Ignorance afflicts us all at various times in our life. But, we all have the ability to change our mind, to change our views on things. We need not remain chained to ignorance. [/stextbox] We all have the capability of forming conclusions that are contrary to those which we held as tightly as a Baptist clings to the doctrine of baptism by immersion. But, it is going to take some bad experiences for most people to learn and change. And even then, some will refuse to change because of a variety of reasons. Some will never change because their circle of friends all believe the way they did until their “tough times” epiphany. They will hold their new-found truth tightly within themselves, never revealing what they truly believe. Others will just refuse to accept the truth that hit them hard and took away their intellectual breath momentarily. They will find an excuse to continue with their jaded and false ideas. They will reinterpret their “bad experience” and excuse themselves from changing their position.
Can You Change Your Mind About Something You Once Believed Passionately?
[stextbox id="info" shadow="true"]Change is good. We all change, with time. We change our ideas as we experience life and as we acquire knowledge. A combination of valid information and life experiences can educate us in ways a college degree cannot compete. Knowing the mistakes of history allows us to comprehend the magnitude and ramifications of decisions made by us and by others. Participating in life and being punished, at times, by our mistakes in that trek, allows us to change our course and not walk that path again. Combining our experience and our knowledge of history can make us a valuable contributor to those around us, those who look to us for guidance and look to us for wisdom.[/stextbox]
Will you be one who gives good counsel? Or, will you continue to allow your bad experiences and the shallow, misguided rhetoric that you’ve allowed to be an influence on your ideas on life, continue to be your guide? Will you continue to ignore truths that may have been divinely sent to be used to help and influence those in your life for good?
Some of you will have to continue on your way until you run into some walls that are impenetrable. I know that because I’ve lived long enough to have seen it. I’ve lived long enough to see stubborn fools wax eloquent (my hand is raised) about their ignorance. And, I’ve seen enough of life to know that some people will never change, people to whom truth is irrelevant or an obstacle to overcome.
[stextbox id="warning" shadow="true"]But, I also know that some of you will do as I have done, at times over the years. You will bounce off that impenetrable wall and begin to rethink the information you’ve allowed to influence you. You’ll give serious consideration to the good instructions you’ve gotten over the years and realize that you have to change your mind, your ways, your attitudes and perhaps even your goals in life.[/stextbox]
I don’t run through life as fast as I once did. I’d like to say it’s “old age,” but truth be known, it’s 
because walls hurt and age has thinned my skull. I wish I could burst through life's walls but I've learned some are too well built by ignorance.
I can’t afford to be wrong any more.
Can you?
Voyle A. Glover
copyright 2016
These guys learn some truths about life through their special training. It will change their attitudes, their perspectives and a host of other things. They will be the better for it.
https://youtu.be/d7bfOoXOOy4
