Connections

"No man is an island". I forget who said that but it is true. When you wake up in the morning you are not a blank slate. All you say or do during the day is based upon all you have learned going back to the day you were born. The knowledge taught to you throughout your life came from other people spanning back to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. There is a cumulative effect. Ancient man was not some dumb half animal. He just didn't have the centuries of knowledge we draw upon. Today our decisions are made by the sum of our learning. The politics of our parents or friends or someone we admire cause us to look in that direction. To seek answers down a specific path. The same goes with our social presentation. What we have learned by observing others we do ourselves. This learning never stops. Based upon what we learn today we will consciously direct our moves tomorrow. How you act at 13 is not how you act at 30 or 50 or 60. You continue to grow, if you are lucky.

So a corollary to "no man is an island" could be. "I stand upon the shoulders of all who went before me, my day is illuminated by all the sun rises there ever was."

I have no original thought. In fact Adam was the only man who ever had one. Everyone else has based his "original thought" upon the assembled knowledge of those who came before. The conclusions we mistake for original thinking are merely the end result of a connection of data along a time line.

Many years ago there was a show on PBS called "Connections". It was hosted by an English chap named Burke I think. The purpose of the program was to show the connections of the discoveries over the centuries. A show may start out in 13Th century Italy with some discovery and end up in 19Th century America with the TV. Connections, because someone discovered something or postulated some new mathematical formula someone else later on could draw upon it and add to it.

Everything is connected. People and actions in close proximity feed off each other and move in a common direction. If everyone in the group are of the same mind the group will desire the same results.

Which brings us to politics. Remember connections? Look how we got to this subject. This didn't just spring upon this blog unexpected. Starting from the opening post I have marched steadily on to this point. The next post will be based upon this and all the previous posts plus the accumulated knowledge I have. Which is sometimes not enough. The next post will delve into some of the connections I see in our government. Stay tuned.