Project Vision 21

The (fictional) story is told of a young man who, after living his entire life in a small village in the rainforest, for some reason decided to go out to explore the world and when he returned to his village two years later, he explained that he had visited a place in which there water was motionless and cold. They called it “ice”.
According to the story, his friends and family did not believe him and even accused him of lying, because, they said, none of them had ever seen cold, motionless water in their entire lives. And when the young man explained that the “ice” was in an area called “mountains” and at a time of year called “winter,” at that moment, they no longer wanted to listen to him.

This story has a direct connection with the famous Allegory of the Cave that Plato shares in his book Republic. One day, a prisoner manages to leave the cave and verify the existence of the outside world. Later, he decides to return to the cave and share his discovery with his former friends, but none of them believe what the former prisoner tells them.

Closer in time and history, it is said that Marco Polo, after returning to Italy after his famous trip to China, and after publishing a book recounting those adventures, was accused of fraud and lies because during the 13th century it was believed in Europe that a civilization as advanced as the one Marco Polo described in his book could not exist outside Europe.

These and many other similar examples of “rejected truths” (as we could be called) reflect a phenomenon so ancient that Greek mythology already incorporated it in the story of Cassandra, the princess of Troy who had the gift of prophecy, but who also had a curse: no one would ever believe what she said.

Based on these perspectives (mythology, philosophy, history), we could say that the two and a half millennia of Western culture are based on a continuous and constant rejection of the truth (however it is presented or understood) and that, therefore, narratives and stories are created to perpetuate lies, illusions and appearances.

In our society, we are all so “locked” inside our cave, our village or city, and our culture that we believe that the limits of our experience are the limits of reality and that, therefore, if someone says or does something different than what we know or experience, that person must be considered a liar or insane.

At the same time, all those who dare to climb cold mountains, to leave their confinement to seek other lights, or to travel to distant parts of the world (including the inner world), or, like Cassandra, to see the future, suffer from the same curse that Cassandra suffered: no one believes them. But their disbelief does not minimize the truth of the truth.

Those who do not see the future will never be able to escape their own destiny.