“In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director,” once said the great Alfred Hitchcock. I have gone documentary mad over the past few months; I have been watching an average of two documentaries a day for the past three months. I am eating up documentaries at an abnormal rate, my hunger is unreal. At first I thought it was just a phase I was going through, but I fear that I have become addicted. From World War II, the fall of the Roman Empire, the invention of the telephone to the history of Cuba, there is no rhyme or reason to my choices; I surf from A to Z.
Would you believe that out of the first twenty “most watched” documentary videos of Youtube that fifteen of them are about sex! The most watched documentary ever is “The Complete Sex Guide” with over 117 millions views!
Away from sex, I have learned so many things that I am running out of space in my brain, but the most important thing I have learned is that I still have plenty to learn. I also learnt that there is nothing you can’t learn from the millions of hours of informative programs available. I guess my curiosity was aroused by programs like the History Channel and Discovery, but these soon became too mainstream for me, I was after a more hardcore diet of knowledge. I couldn’t get enough.
The old adage of “the more you know the less you know,” is totally true. This was even proved in one documentary, giving the example of three different sized circles. Imagine thee circles, one small, one medium and one large. Everything inside the circles represents our knowledge and everything directly outside the circle represents our lack of knowledge.
So, for example, the smallest circle has the smallest amount of knowledge inside it, and at the same time the least amount of lack of knowledge. Which is often why a dumb person will say, “there is nothing I don’t know.” They, to a certain extent are correct, for their lack of knowledge, or the outside of their tiny circle is small, hence they believe they know everything. When the circles grow in size, or when a person learns more, so the outside of the circle grows and they feel like they know less and less. The real geniuses, with ultra large circles, drive themselves crazy because the more they learn, the cleverer they become, so they realise that they know nothing, the outside of their circles is huge.
The next time you meet someone who says, “I know everything about everything,” you can smile to yourselves and think, “small circle.” Away from physiology I must have watched every conspiracy theory on the planet. My advice, don’t start watching 9/11 conspiracy theory documentaries, there is no end, literally endless. From the CIA to the FBI, to Bin Laden and the Russians, everyone was blamed in some way. Then onto “green” documentaries, pollution, global warming and our general lack of respect for the earth that gives us life.
What we do to our planet is unbelievably disgusting, truly shameful. Give to the earth and she will give back to you, at least this is what we should do. I was reminded of our own lack of care for Mother Nature this week when I received a letter from a lady concerned about people dumping waste in Slano. Unfortunately her tale of woe isn’t the only one.
“The local authorities, probably for financial reasons, are not prompt in removing rubbish and it shocks me that when one lives in such a beautiful place one can neglect it,” was one line from her lengthy letter. The main culprit was building waste. Trucks carrying building materials drive into the nature where they think no one will see them and “unload” their rubbish in the green oasis. I have seen the exact same in Plat. One day I go for a walk with my dogs in pristine nature, the next day there are lorry loads of bricks, tiles and cement dumped into the bushes, choking the life out of nature. “I sense that building rubbish is not seen as offensive so is tipped off any nearby hillside. If it is so inoffensive why don't these people store it on their own land?” concluded the letter.
Education is the answer, a large percentage of these people simply don’t know any better. They probably all fall into the first and smallest circle of knowledge.