Illusions in Life

I would like to start by apologizing to everyone for posting this so late. The dorm did not have Internet over the weekend and I could only get to this now. I hope no one missed it too much.

I was quite fascinated by the illusions that we studied in class. I have a, possibly unhealthy, interest in the manipulation of the mind and it was interesting how such simple changes to imagery can confuse our processing. For instance, the Ponzo illusion, merely by placing the parallel lines through the picture turned our processing abilities on their head (figuratively of course). The identical line segments were changed, the higher one now looking longer than the one lower down in the picture. Linear perspective and relative height were manipulated into deceiving our perception abilities. The Moon illusion also tricks our mind, placing the moon next to buildings we know our mind compares it to.

Learning about these illusions made me think about the world at large, and what exactly is real and not. I wasn't thinking about pure illusions, such as the Mueller-Lyer illusionary effect I potentially could witness during my day. I was thinking about the illusions of how we see the world, what we think is really important compared to what actually is. What we are led to believe and what is actually true. How the wool is pulled over our eyes.

I thought of our education system. We work ourselves to the bone in high school, striving to achieve 5's on the APs and straight A's. As important as it is for the system, what we learn in school is hardly essential to our futures. With all due respect, but I will not need psychology or World History later in my career. The schooling system, from my perspective at least, seems to condition us to be so focused on such unimportant things. We should be focusing on the paths that our career will require.