The Way of the World
Searching for a new paradigm. The sky is blue. Brilliant. That's how you can negate cultural relativism and the diversity of human experience, by pointing out that the sky is blue. If there is this one immutable, incontrovertible fact, this universal truth, then there must be others. And as long as the sky is blue, I can say that I am right and you are wrong.

I am right.

You are wrong.

What? You are right, and I am wrong?

Sorry, you're wrong. I am right, and you are wrong.

It's brilliant because we can agree that the sky is blue and you can impose that fact on every little, tiny, furry living creature on this planet, but we can't agree that the sky is even there, or on the nature of the sky.

What is the sky? Look up, and it is blue. But it's really just a concept, an illusion, it's atmosphere, gases absorbing sunlight, at least all of the colors that make up sunlight, except blue, which is scattered. Or that's how science explains it.

What is the sky? The only change is sunlight. Add sunlight, you get blue, remove sunlight, you get nothing, transparence, stars billyuns and billyuns of light years away. Is the night sky the same thing as the sky you are calling blue?

But it's true, this is all irrelevant, it's a totally different question. I didn't ask you to look up and contemplate the nature of the sky. I just asked you to look up at the sky and tell me what color it is. It's blue.

So you are right, and I am wrong; your paradigm sucks. My so-called "paradigm" is reality, it only sucks because you're wrong. I don't subscribe to it, if I'm wrong, it's only because you assume I'm in it. You don't have a choice whether you can subscribe to reality or not. That is something we can both agree on, I'm not choosing to not subscribe to it, I just don't. Whatever.

NB: This rant references a past conversation, but really has nothing to do with it.