How Far You Can See Is Determined By How High You Can Fly

Photo: In Order to See the Volcano, One Must Rise Above the Grass

How Far You Can See Is Determined By How High You Can Fly – I attribute this quote to myself for it has been uttered by no one before me. I can’t recall the first time I brought up the strange phenomenon which makes so many people fail to see the obvious and fear the truth of it existing to the point that they would turn against anyone who brings its existence up. Being a travel blogger, I specifically noted the phenomenon in regards to other travel bloggers who would deceive the public by failing to disclose the full truth, purposefully exaggerating the positives, while leaving the negatives out entirely.

Photo: In Order to See the Volcano, One Must Rise Above the Grass
Photo: In Order to See the Volcano, One Must Rise Above the Grass

The most fascinating bit about this phenomenon, was that many deceptors would firmly believe that their half truth is in fact full truth. They would for example not see a scammer if one came up to them with a big sign reading “I’M A SCAMMER” tattooed on their forehead and scammed them out of their living bejeezus for as long as he did it with fake smile on their face. Then instead of blaming the scammer for being the filthy piece of shite he was, they would blame themselves for the loss and turn on anyone who’d have the nerve to suggest that they were scammed.

I was able to identify many traits the sufferers from falsehood are infected with, such as the Fear of Reality or the Expat Syndrome, but it wasn’t until recently when I identified the perception disability of the mind. I was well aware of the phenomenon known as the inattentional blindness, which makes people completely miss even the most obvious thing, even if it’s right before their eyes, simply because their focus settled on something else, but this was only part of the problem. Sure, skilled scammer can hypnotize a victim with their sweet talk well enough to draw their attention away from their pockets allowing the scammer to rip the victim off but what is it that makes the victim go out of their way jumping down the throat of anyone who’d dare to call this man who spoke such sweet things to the victim a rip off artist?

Tales of Truth

400 years ago, William Shakespeare suggested that only a child or a fool can speak the truth. Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen also brought this phenomenon up in his tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes. In his tale, people, including the emperor himself fell for the swindle that if they didn’t see the clothes, other’s would perceive them as unfit for their positions, or just hopelessly stupid. As a result, even though the Emperor was clearly naked, they all praised his new clothes like their lives depended on it. Only a child, not yet corrupted by the desire to please others, told it how it was and laughed at the Emperor for wearing nothing at all.

And this is precisely what a majority of travel bloggers, heck – majority of people in general – are still like today. Four hundred years after William Shakespeare’s King Lear, two hundred years after Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, and the people have not changed one bit. The allegory that only a child or a fool are fearless enough and uncorrupted to speak the truth translates to those who are perceive by the majority as foolish or childish. By the very majority which praises the naked Emperor for beautiful clothes he’s wearing for fear of being judged by others.

How Far You Can See Is Determined By How High You Can Fly

So that’s the final puzzle piece in the riddle of deceptive travel blogging – no wonder half truthers would jump down the throat of everyone who dares to say that there are huge mountains beyond the horizons when all they could see were stems of grass. Presenting the bird’s eye view topography to a person with nose glued to the ground is about as fruitful a donation to an NGO run by scammers. How could people see what really is going on when they’re too stuck up to rise above the ground to see what life is like from the higher up perspective?

At this point, I have but one thing to add – if you’re afraid of vertigo, you will never know how far you can see.

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