How real is this?
Did you watch anything good this weekend? Time to consider it in the context of this week's thought experiment.
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Members of the bizarre Weatherfield sect lived a very secluded life at St Hilda Hogden House. All but the leaders were forbidden any contact with the outside world and were taught that reality was the world portrayed on soap operas - the only television programmes they were allowed to watch. For the Weatherfieldians, as they were known, Coronation Street, The Bold and the Beautiful, EastEnders, and Neighbours were not works of fiction but fly-on-the-wall documentaries. And since most of the members had been born in the commune, the pretence was not hard to maintain.
One day, however, disciple Kenneth, who had always been a touch rebellious, decided to leave Hogden's and visit the places he had seen so often on the altar box. This was, of course, strictly prohibited. But Kenneth managed to escape.
What he found amazed him. The biggest shock came when he managed to get to Coronation Street and discovered it wasn't in Weatherfield at all, but was a set in the Granada Studios.
But when he furtively returned to Hogden's and told his fellow disciples what he had discovered, he was dismissed as a lunatic. 'You should never have left,' they told him. 'It's not safe out there. The mind plays tricks on you!' And with that they chased him from the commune and forbade him to enter again.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 55.
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Crazy right? But what ideas have you swallowed from society? What truths are out there waiting to be discovered or have already been rejected? More on Friday.
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Members of the bizarre Weatherfield sect lived a very secluded life at St Hilda Hogden House. All but the leaders were forbidden any contact with the outside world and were taught that reality was the world portrayed on soap operas - the only television programmes they were allowed to watch. For the Weatherfieldians, as they were known, Coronation Street, The Bold and the Beautiful, EastEnders, and Neighbours were not works of fiction but fly-on-the-wall documentaries. And since most of the members had been born in the commune, the pretence was not hard to maintain.
One day, however, disciple Kenneth, who had always been a touch rebellious, decided to leave Hogden's and visit the places he had seen so often on the altar box. This was, of course, strictly prohibited. But Kenneth managed to escape.
What he found amazed him. The biggest shock came when he managed to get to Coronation Street and discovered it wasn't in Weatherfield at all, but was a set in the Granada Studios.
But when he furtively returned to Hogden's and told his fellow disciples what he had discovered, he was dismissed as a lunatic. 'You should never have left,' they told him. 'It's not safe out there. The mind plays tricks on you!' And with that they chased him from the commune and forbade him to enter again.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 55.
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Crazy right? But what ideas have you swallowed from society? What truths are out there waiting to be discovered or have already been rejected? More on Friday.
