the comforts of a flat earth

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Setting aside the comforting smirks of a latter-day intelligence, I wonder today about the mind that once saw the world as flat. All sorts of cultures adopted the credo in a time now dubbed "pre-scientific." A flat earth.

My latter-day mind wonders in astonishment as I try to enter such a world. If you lived in a world where 'everyone' believed the world was flat, wouldn't you want to know? An assumption as far-reaching as that -- wouldn't you, at some point, want to find out if it were true?

At the edge of a flat earth (1888)

And of course people did come along to wonder just that and, eventually, to lay a flat earth to rest. But in the meantime, while living in a flat-earth world ... wouldn't anyone want to check out and affirm his or her own assumptions? My latter-day intelligence is smugly astounded.

And then I start thinking of all the cares people have in their lives -- the need to feed and protect their families, the need to build a passable shelter, the need to sustain and preserve their very existence ... the important stuff that takes so much time and so much energy ... the actual-factual, on-the-ground stuff in front of their noses. From that point of view, believing that the earth was flat would be a luxury item -- something extra. It would be a social convention that assured comfort and warmth within a social setting. If you say the world is flat and I do too, then, perhaps, we can be boon companions, friends and the need for society would be supported and advanced.

The comforts of a flat earth: Who cares if it is true or not as long as we can offer each other some social warmth? So ... let's believe in a flat earth. Let's believe in heaven and hell. Let's believe in enlightenment and compassion. Let's believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that warranted an invasion in 2003. Let's believe that Democrats or Republicans provide a better or worse agenda. Let's believe ... well, let's believe whatever we believe and find others who believe likewise because then we can be boon companions and say, "everyone knows that" ... everyone knows the earth is flat.

Intellectually, all of this makes some rough sense, I imagine. As part of some interior flat earth -- flat earth intellect, flat earth emotion -- there are edges to the universe and assumptions and friends to prove it. And each creates his or her own universe until ... until ... until at last the background whisper will no longer be stilled: Wouldn't you like to know? Wouldn't you like to find out for yourself if something were good or bad or elevated or debased or wide or narrow or true or false? Beyond all the comforts of "everyone knows," wouldn't you like to know?

Challenging the flat earth that anyone else might espouse is a popular intellectual pastime. If I can convince others of their skewed views, then they will agree with me and once more there will be the comfort of "everyone knows." The only trouble with this socially-comforting activity is that it brings no peace: The earth is still flat. What others say simply has no capacity to assure peace ... or, perhaps better, the peace that it assures stands on very wobbly, if socially-comforting feet.

My guess is that each is stuck with his or her flat earth. It may be very genuine and generous, but it is still a personally-constructed flat earth. And it is from within that framework that individuals choose which part of "everyone knows" they are willing to investigate. This is not a group activity. It is simply a journey to the edge of the flat earth at hand and then an effort to stick the head into the firmament pictured above. Which of your very own, very personal axioms and assumptions will you choose to find out about? I have no clue.

There is no moral imperative in any of this ... it's just an attempt to bring peace where there is uncertainty. Telling others not to believe in a flat earth is child's play. But gathering the willingness to examine within ... well, it strikes me as the only sensible option for anyone who discovers that "everyone knows" simply cannot assure what is sought ... a bit of peace.

Is the journey to the edge of the known earth worth it? Is it worth the sense of alone-ness and fear and ... "eek ... what if I fall off?!"

Is it worth it?

I don't know.

You tell me.
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