Rocking the boat

The story is told that when I was a very young child my mother told me not to touch the stove.  It was hot!

I, of course, had to touch it and immediately discovered it was not hot.  Of course it wasn’t -- not all the time, but that had not been part of the admonition from my mother.

In the epiphany of that moment I learned that much of what people told me was not true.

Of course I paid a terrible price for it later on when I touched the stove again and this time the red-hot burner left its mark on my palm.  I was set up for that as are all people fed partial truths in an attempt to control them.  

Under estimating the intelligence of others in a desire to control them, even if it seems it is for their own benefit, makes way for an astounding amount of pain in this world.

There are hosts of politicians and others who count on us not thinking.  They rely on our early training to just do as we are told in spite of everything else.

It is easier to go with the flow, run with the pack, be part of the herd.  It is easier to blindly follow everyone else than to think, or rock the boat.

Imagine a world where no one rocks the boat to wake up the sleeping herd before they sail right over the waterfall.

Yep, imagine that.