Disjointed Ramblings on Kant, Socrates, Puzzles, and the Government

There is a point in life where you look around and realize that the whole time you've been wasting your time focusing on the wrong thing. When you finally understand why it didn't work, because you had the missing piece and were looking for the puzzle instead of putting the puzzle together and hoping to find the missing piece later. When you realize that you really have no idea whats going on, and you flail around blindly until you find something which seems more solid. And then there is a point where that isn't good enough and something needs to be done. It's when you reach that point that you find that you've seen so much and missed so much more that it's too late to try to change, and you sit in the dark and cry. Most people don't bother noticing the difference and never change at all. For everyone else there's no going back, but how can you go forward either? When that happens it's hard to just take it in stride and keep going, it's hard to just assume that what you now see has any more substance than what you saw earlier, that it has any more validity compared to what you know you're still failing to see.

It is an unfortunate flaw of human nature that we tend to overlook the obvious and see entirely too much in the most insignificant of details. There is also the human propensity for blaming others for this flaw. The government, the schools, the Russian spies, your parents. How do we survive in a world where everyone sees only their tiny piece and no one wants to share that piece with anyone else? Will we ever be willing to share anything other than our negative opinions and even more unconstructive and unpleasant accusations pointed at someone other than ourselves? This is getting us nowhere, and we still have our entire lives to live with the mistakes we make now. The assumptions we base our opinions and thoughts and even our entire lives on are nothing more than the puzzle piece which may or may not be the one missing from the big puzzle. What is the purpose of living when we can't live our lives to the fullest for lack of information? How can a person just shrug and turn their back to learning and just assume that they know everything they will ever need to? What happened to Socrates and his brilliant notion that true wisdom lies not in knowing everything, but in realizing that in fact you don't and never will? As Kant asks, why is it admissible or even possible for a person to remain in his nonage and not actively seek to become more than he currently is? I ask these questions not to come to any particular conclusion, but to give myself something to question and hopefully a better view of the other puzzle pieces that I'm missing.

Maybe I should write a book detailing my ideas on enlightenment, Socrates, and the government. Maybe I should hide in a corner and whisper obscenities about the current state of the universe and wonder why no one likes me and my different ideas. Maybe I should curl up and die and give up on ever learning as much as I want to know. Maybe someday I'll finally find the other pieces and accept why others are the way they are and why I am the way I am. Maybe.