Every few years I encounter an
argument that claims what we call reality is a constructed consensus among
those who claim to be experts. In recent
history it goes back to the popularization of Einstein’s analysis of the
difficulty of knowing who is moving in space. We note this when we are taking a
subway ride and another train is moving alongside. It becomes confusing: are we stationary and
they are moving or are we both moving or are we moving and the other train is
stationary? Which one of is going forward
and which is going backward? Without a
fixed reference it may not be possible to tell.
I agree with Einstein’s paradox about motion in space. But consider the following applications of
relativity to specific examples.
1. Suppose you jump from a plane convinced that you are
stationary in space but that the earth is accelerating toward you. In this situation you believe it is only a state
of mind which is happening and you feel a certain satisfaction of the immense
concentrated energy you have to make the earth move so rapidly. Fully confident this is only relative and you
are able to control the interpretation, the delusion ends with a splat.
2. Imagine you are living and raised in poverty
and you are told that whether your children will be raised in poverty or wealth
is only a matter of your effort to succeed. You alone are master of your fate.
You work for a minimum wage and try being a barista at Starbucks and calculate after
a few days of work that your work is worth only 8 cups of coffee per day. You decide that wealth is a relative
concept. Compared to illiterates or
semi-literates scavenging garbage heaps in favellas, you are relatively well
off. They would envy you. You also agree that you are more likely to go
to Heaven than most of the wealthy who are doomed by the New Testament warning
that for the rich it is harder to get into Heaven than to pass through the eye
of a needle (you take that literally, of course). To your surprise, when you have children,
they too are likely to live in poverty.
3. You
are deciding whether to vote in an upcoming election. You listen to the nightly news and read the
newspapers each day and are disillusioned by finding Democrats who are corrupt
or Republicans who are corrupt. Both Democrats
and Republicans make promises and don’t keep them. You decide it makes no
difference whether you vote or not because all politicians are corrupted by
lobbyists. In the election one candidate blames all our problems on inferior
people (both immigrant and local degenerates), appeasement of bullying nations,
insufficient military action against those who criticize our policies, and
labor unions that threaten our economy. The
other candidate seeks diplomacy over military action, more abundant education
of our children and youth, government funded programs to protect our health and
provide the roads, and a more equitable taxation that does away with loopholes
and other legislation favoring the rich and the powerful. You are told that it’s all relative because the
ambitious will do better under the first candidate in a “free society” and the
lazy will be rewarded in a socialist type society where people are reduced to
parasites sucking the life blood of the nation. You are instead told to vote
for the first candidate and wait for a trickle down from the massive amount of
wealth generated by that party’s policies.
So you do so. But the only trickle
down that comes is from the tears of laughter of the privileged and powerful
who have duped you again.
