Who Decides What is Real and What is Not?

DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS SIMPLY AN OPINION, AND IS NOT BEING PRESENTED AS FACT. ANY PRESUMPTIONS MADE OR CONNECTIONS DRAWN ARE SIMPLY THOSE MADE BY THE AUTHOR, AND ARE NOT TO BE CONSIDERED CONCRETE.

The Moon is a mysterious celestial body that billions of men and women throughout time have wished to see up close. We wonder what it’s like up there, what’d it be like to walk around on a hunk of space rock with no atmosphere. They say we went in July of 69′. But did we really?

I tend to face this problem the same way that Plato did almost 2500 years ago. In Plato’s The Republic, he puts forth the Allegory of the Cave. In this piece, Socrates is talking to one of his followers about a scenario. If there were three prisoners in a cave chained to a stone wall from birth, not able to see anything other than the wall across from them, than all they would know was the wall itself.

Say that behind them there sat a raised walkway, on which there was a non-stop procession of other people carrying objects, never stopping, going in a loop over and over, and behind THEM was a fire, casting light upon the wall that the prisoners were always facing. Now, the objects carried by the people behind the prisoners, let’s call them the empirical world, cast shadows upon the wall the prisoners look at, which let’s call the empirical truth. If all we knew were these shadows, dancing upon the walls, than to us that is all that exists.

Just the three prisoners and the stone wall with the shadows. Now, say one of the prisoners were to escape from their bindings, and find his way out of the cave. As he exits into the real world, he would be absolutely astonished to discover that there was a whole other world out there. At first he would not, could not believe that what he had known all his life was not all there was. He would spend several hours dwelling upon this, bathing in the light of the sun, which he had never known.

Finally, taken aback by this revelation, he would run back to the cave to tell his brothers of his discovery. They would laugh at him, call him insane, for of course there was nothing else beyond the cave, because it is all that they knew. For there to be a world outside of theirs would contest their entire belief about life itself, and would drive them mad.

When he offers to remove their bindings to show them, they would threaten him with murder before going back to their game of watching the shadows. The freed prisoner, who represents philosophers who challenge empirical evidence, would go back outside, alone in his discovery.

Most of the people of the Earth are the prisoners, confined to watch the same shadows over and over again, believing only what they see. And then there are the precious few who challenge said sights, wanting to either prove or disprove them with solid, factual evidence. These are modern day philosophers, and just as they were in 38 B.C., they are laughed at. Everyone automatically assumes that what they have to say is untrue, and simply the ravings of a mad-man. Even if the evidence they put forth is concrete, and indisputable, the people will still ignore them.

This was the case with once-distinguished employee of Rocketdyne, Bill Kaysing. He was one of the first to speak out against Nasa about the moon landings, and presented one of the most well rounded theories ever developed by any conspiracy theorist. Kaysing’s theory is that the astronauts shot footage of them walking on the “moon” prior to the launch of the Apollo rocket, and were shown getting into the rocket and launching into space. However, due to limitations in technology at the time, they only made it to the atmosphere. There, they orbited the Earth for 8 days while, meanwhile, “live” footage of the astronauts walking on the moon is shown to the public. They communicate directly to the people from the rocket, the entire conversation scripted prior to the launch.

In a transmission between Neil Armstrong and Mission Control that took place while the team was supposed to be half-way to the moon, a mysterious third voice is heard during the conversation. HAM radio is only capable of transmitting two voice conversations; a third voice cannot be transmitted. And yet, during this particular conversation, a third voice that is NOT Mission Control, nor Armstrong, tells Neil to “talk” after the 4 second delay that should occur in between transmissions if they were truly that far apart. It is not concrete proof, but it does bring up the question as to why, if they were really that close to the moon, would they need someone to tell Armstrong when to talk?

Kaysing’s theory goes on to point out that, other than some obscure footage and crackly transmissions, not to mention some gray rocks, there is no physical evidence that we went to the moon. The only thing we know for sure, is that the Government sure wants us to think that we did.

What I have brought into question isn’t just the possibility that we didn’t go to the moon in ’69, but additionally the fact that we trust everything that is told to us. We expect our Government to protect us and tell us the truth, but who tells us what we perceive to be the truth? Our parents. And where do our parents learn this? From the history books. And who writes the history books? The United States Government, that grand and unchallenged controller of our country.

There may not be enough evidence to prove anything, but then again, is there any evidence to suggest that, without a shadow of a doubt, we went to the Moon? You decide.

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