Control Distorts The Truth

After reading an article on the Montrose Adoption Center's blog about aggression I thought about its musical and worldly similarities. Aggression, as animal behaviorist Corey Cohen states, is just a method for animals to control their environment. Well, isn't that a lot of what music is? We try to channel sound, control sound to our liking. Our music is beautiful, yes, but man-made all the same. It is a product of manipulation. We try to control our surroundings and manipulate them to our own personal needs. Now, I'm not saying I'm above this problem, and I'm not saying it's inherently a bad thing. Like in the case of rules, it can even be benficial at times. However, overdoing it like many do is detrimental. It's just something we should become aware of.

This idea comes into play in science. You can have three types of observers: a passive observer who just makes observations from what they can see without making any effort to explore more, an active observer who takes the time to make observations and gets in depth with their discoveries, and a disturbing observer who looks so deeply that they actually manipulate and distort what they are observing. Today we have all become disturbing observers. Science, which is supposed to be the truth about the world, is being distorted to the point where we cannot even be sure if our discoveries actually exist or are the creations of our own minds.

One more place this thought exists is in philosophy. Immanuel Kant addressed this issue when looking at justice. He said the only way to get to a just decision is through a catagorial imperative. A catagorial imperative is when the judge of a situation goes behind a "veil of ignorance" where they have no idea what their status or experiences in life are. That way their mind cannot distort their decision.

All of these examples show that when we try and manipulate or control our surroundings, we don't get the truth. We get a product of our own efforts: what our mind wants us to think. Try and listen to natural music next time you go outside. The wind through trees, a bird's song, flowing water. All of these things are the truth, and by seeing and hearing the truth we come closer to real happiness.