When we were children, simple in our understanding, trusting in our outlook, we all underwent a major surgical procedure. One so radical and invasive that to this day no one dares speak of it. Our teachers, with the assent, nay, the encouragement of our parents, and the unquestioning approbation of society grafted a sort of helmet onto our heads. For the sake of explicitness let us call this ‘helmet’ the fabrefode for FAct-Based-REality-FOrmation-DEvice. While the material of the fabrefode headpiece is as obdurate as iron it is also transparent so that as it set in place over the course of our ‘education’ it was, and continues to be, invisible.
This grafting procedure was undertaken in the spirit of being, more than good for us, vital to our future survival and well-being. It was so gradual that the only pain we registered was the discomfort of having to corral our puppy-like instincts to romp and play in the hard-bottomed chairs of our classrooms. While this forced grafting has altered all of our lives in the most significant of ways, it was performed by all involved with the best of intentions. There was no evil motive in the usurpation of our innocence and our sanity. There is no forgiveness required or vengeance to be exacted—we are simply unaware of the misfortune that we continue to perpetuate.
The primary function of the fabrefode was to dispel the inherent unknowability of everything around us; to obscure, undermine and ultimately abolish the essential subtlety of a world that is constantly and unstoppably in flux. To that end, this ‘helmet’ makes everything we can see, hear, or touch absolutely definable as an object with knowable parameters expressible in words and/or mathematical terms. It establishes the unassailable supremacy of facts, and laminates our minds with the conviction that if it cannot be measured, it probably does not exist. and it's certainly not useful.
You might argue that there are many ways this feat of human engineering has proven beneficial. It may be that civilization and all its magnificent gifts (and, to be sure, problems) is made possible by this massive, widespread head-grafting—going on now for centuries in almost all cultures. The question being posed here is not about the relative merit of this vast program. It is a much more personal and existential question: Once we become aware of this helmet, how the fuck do we get it off?