The Concept of Disillusionment

I had a hard time coming up with what to post. Thankfully, I spent a large portion of my day today away from my computer so I had time to think about what I wanted to post. I have now come up with ideas for today's post and an idea for a new Nerdology post (Remember that series? You will soon). Anyway, on with the post.

Link of the Week: Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal (View my post about the original game here).

I couldn't think of a witty title for this post, so the title explains itself. Let me take you into a memory of mine from the 4th/5th grade (I had the same teacher for both grades). I was an odd child. I liked creating things from common objects. Naturally, I tended to bend paper clips, mold aluminum foil, etc... to do so. Well, one ordinary day, my teacher had a special paper clip that was, apparently, somewhat pricey. She found it bent and mangled and was very upset. She demanded that whoever ruined the paper clip to come forward and admit it. No one did. Now, I'm pretty sure that I was the culprit, but the thing is, I'm not sure. Why? Because my memory of the incident is so distorted that it is impossible to tell if I actually did. I believed that I didn't do it so much that I managed to convince myself that I did not do it in order to avoid guilt. Furthermore, by insisting that I did do it, I created a false memory within my mind of doing the act. Thus, the memory is so twisted that I cannot say for sure whether I did it.

This is very strange, as I clearly distorted my memory of this incident. But to what extent? I can't tell, so besides the basic facts, I can't tell what actually happened. This brings up an interesting point. Can we impose false realities on ourself and distort our own memories? I think that we can to a point. Disillusionment is hardly something that can be done intentionally because if you know that something is a lie, than you can't believe it. Disillusionment is something that occurs gradually and, most likely, subconsciously. It occurs when your sense of reality is so skewed, that you can no longer reliably discern the truth regarding a memory or thought. It's a scary thought, but it happens all the time. People sometimes want to believe something so badly that they ignore glaring falsities. Furthermore, they soon come up with their own twisted ideas to cover these falsities and genuinely believe them.

We live in a world of business. Business is essentially the vanguard of disillusionment; businesses convince themselves that they are doing right regardless if they actually are, advertising is used to create disillusionment in the masses so people will buy their services and products, and people slowly believe the lies of the businesses. People believe the lies that they can be perfect through the use of a product. Because of this, disillusionment is an underlying and integral part of society.

Therefore, the question we must ask is "How can I rid myself of this disillusionment?" The short answer is through gradual introspection and enlightenment. Just as it takes time for disillusionment take root, it takes time to pull it out of one's mind. It is hard to take back what you formally believed, depending on the level of disillusionment. It is a long and difficult process but a necessary one in the pursuit of truth.

I would encourage you to read/look up about disillusionment, but the Internet has a dearth of information regarding this subject. Therefore, I encourage you to muse about this: how disillusioned are you? What is real? What is a figment of your mind? All of these are difficult questions, but I encourage you to ask them. Disillusioning yourself is a worthwhile process in the end.

Comment, debate, and question disillusionment if you'd like in the comments. It is certainly an interesting concept.

See you next week!
ACRONYM of the Blog

P.S. I need a new name, but I haven't come up with one yet.