"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
Rings a bell? Well, the guess is much on the right track. The above is the citation from "Calvin & Hobbes". To umpteen the C&H quotes or citations might be like giving someone a thick ear but guys they are the sharpest knife in the drawer.
So getting back to the quote, the query that concerns is being selective about reality. Well do we really have numerous aspects of reality / truth? Truth is supposed to be unrivaled. It is absolute in nature. The thing I would like to assert out here is that Everything is Relative, admitting the Truth as well.
The theme in reality is that all ideas, and all possible ways of looking at the world are equally true and valid. This is no wishful thinking and it is easy to get one's thinking about such abstract matters tangled up. So you call back on the very existence of Truth. The precise definition of Truth - "A fact that has been verified" does spread light but then again it lays its dependence on the perception of facts, depending on one's point of view.
It appears that the statement is true if things in reality are as the statement says they are put up, otherwise it is all but crap. Many a times things may prove to be relative on the basis of mere observations. What tastes sweet to one person may taste bitter to another. What sounds melodious to me may sound cacophonous to you. And so on. Whether something is "true" or not depends so much on the context, and so much on your needs and goals, that it comes very close to complete relativity. Even if I say "the sky is blue," the perspective of an astronaut might change that. (Well, as you get closer to the "sky," it actually starts to get kind of black)
Don't you think this universe operates in a perfect harmony? It’s awesome to see its mysteries that are happening around us and inside us. Everything is a piece of perfection operating by precise laws. What I want to imply to is one such Laws of nature - "The Law of Relativity". It is not by accident that the Laws of nature exist, and no matter what your belief is regarding whom or what created them. The laws are irrefutable. It’s like the state of being relative; as, the relativity of a subject.
The work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects. Let me share a wonderful Woodcut which describes Relativity:
"Relativity" is the name of a popular woodcut created by M.C. Escher in 1953. The illustration is centered on three staircases in a triangular arrangement, each one perpendicular to the others in three-dimensional space. Featureless men and women are walking up and down these stairs past each other, but everyone seems to use a different direction for "down" -- so that one's wall is another's floor. One part of the illustration even has two men descending a staircase perpendicular to each other.
This illustration was popular in the 1960s and 1970s because of its psychedelic effect, but it can be seen as having a deeper metaphor -- that of different people living in different world’s side-by-side. One may consider an act good that another right next to him would think of as bad; one may think that progress is in this direction, another that it's over that way instead. But the figures in the woodcut live side by side, going about their activities, cooperating with those who agree with their sense of "up" and allowing those who don't to continue on their own way.
To bring to a close I would leave you with an excerpt:
"If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew." - Albert Einstein
Confused? Well that’s relativity for you.
Hey first of all nice post to start with. Really thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteReally this is totally different attitude to look at the quote of K&H and linking it to THE truth in the world Relativity. Nicely done.
Personally I think that these two could have been handled in two different topics with no link at all.
But congrats to you for discovering the link.
Keep it up.
You're right buddy...I could have dealt with reality and relativity seperately but I wanted to write on the fact that reality in itself is relative. They are both created through the act of perception, and so belong to the relative world of experience.They are the dimensional framework within which we structure our mental image of the world. And thatswhy this "link" seemed very important to me.
ReplyDelete