Said a father to a son,
hardly had they time to get out of bed and contemplate the new day:
“Something else totally unnoticed by ordinary men:
In the world of ideas, if you know what's wrong  --  you can't fix it.
In the realm of material objects nothing can be fixed unless you know what is wrong;
a malfunctioning motor cannot be put aright without knowing the cause
of its breakdown; everyone clearly understands this in the world of things,
you must know what the problem is or you can’t fix it  --  but:
everyone plays completely oblivious to the inescapable fact that in the world of ideas, if you know what’s wrong  --  you can’t fix it.

In the realm of actual stuff you can examine the present state of an object,
that from your perspective is not working properly,
and ascertain in your mind the condition it should be in:
('The wire that is connected to the generator should be attached to the alternator'),
and in the other different, but equally as attention consuming world of ideas & beliefs, ordinary minds perceive the situation to be the same:
('The idea that man has concerning subject A,' [which could be politics, religion, morality, art, music, literature, anything to which men pay attention
which they cannot physically touch]
is the wrong idea and should be fixed  --  by replacing it with this other idea
which I have in my mind and know to be the correct one'):
it all seems to everyday minds to be a quite clear cut situation:
When, to your perception, something is wrong with something
in either the world of physical objects or ideas,
and your thoughts tell you what is wrong   --  then and only then can you fix it:
what could be truer than that.”
 

The elder splashed some cold water in both their countenances
(it being unavoidable) and reaching for the towel, proceeded verbally ante.
“The normal civilized, cultured life of man is inseparably tied to his thoughts continually telling him that not only is he surrounded by ideas that are wrong,
but that the situation can be fixed.
Men can accept the fact that at any moment lightning could strike and kill them,
and there would be nothing they could do about it:
it is an activity of the environment in which they live, which,
from their individual physical perspective of survival is wrong  --   but cannot be fixed;
men’s consciousness also tells them they live in an intangible environment of ideas  --
indeed when their thinking is not on their physical one, it is solely on this one,
(en passant: the less do you live a life threatened by starvation,
the more does your attention in the latter reside).
And in this realm which exists entirely in their brain do men perceive themselves constantly under potential attack from without  --  not from deadly lightning bolts  --
but from wrong and thus harmful ideas  --  which can be fixed.
If man A has a wrong idea about something political,
it can be fixed by him being told of his error and adopting your correct one:
voila!  --  problem fixed.”
 

The father slapped their cheeks, and tussled their hair
as he pushed them toward the kitchen and continued.
“Ideas can’t be fixed;
a wrong idea about some physical object can be corrected,
but a wrong idea about something that exists only as an idea cannot be!”
He grabbed the lad by the shoulder and leaned into his face:
“Do I have to explain that?!”
He let go and laughed.

“Isn’t it scrumptious: in that special area around which our lives turn:
If you know what’s wrong  --  you can’t fix it.
If it were a physical matter it would be otherwise (such as):
If you see that the grip your son is using in his attempt to throw a curve ball is wrong, and not  working  --  you can show him the proper one:
you can fix his not knowing how to correctly throw a curve ball,
but in any situation in the world of things mental,
when, from your view, you see another man wrongly holding and employing an idea  --  there is nothing you can do  --  there is literally nothing that can be done.
This is not how life has programmed 99.99999% of the planet’s population to see it;
all sane, reasonable, normal, educated, up-to-date, sophisticated people
know that the situation of someone having the wrong idea about a matter can be fixed,  and thus everybody goes about continually trying to fix them!”  --  and the old man jumped up and down, hooting with great self induced (nee: faux) laughter.
 

“Where mental may-pops meet the hot asphalt of reality in us
is the matter of you knowing what’s wrong with you  --
(and of course thereby, knowing what is needed to fix you.
[If I hadn’t already ripped my throat, I’d go into an even bigger show of guffaws]).
You can fix a limp caused by callous, but what are you going to do about
what you perceive to be your voluminous repertoire of mental limps?
‘You’re working on them’  --  you say?
You tell us that you know what the problems are --
it’s now just a matter of you fixing them.”
 

Father exited the backdoor out of the kitchen, kid in tow, into the yard.
They stood for a moment, watching the sun starting to show above the horizon.
"In the world of ideas, if you know  what's wrong  --  you can't fix it.
Explain: If a mind has the wrong idea regarding Cinderella’s hair color  --
how do you fix  --  correct the idea?
If you know what is wrong regarding something,
and you are incorrect in your assessment,
then what is it that you can ever do that will fix a situation which you mis-see?"

He smiled and slyly nudged the nipper in the ribs:
"Let's get real: How can you ever wake-up if you are mistaken about, aw, never mind."
 
 

Rough dried life consists inevitably of both foot and head bruises;
a fully lit man does not compound it by confusing the two.
 
 

The never less than fully nourishing view of what is required-&-in-order
for the certain man’s life is: controlled mental focus;
you can call it by any fancy name you wish, and attribute to it all the metaphysical connotations decency permits  --

Something every good father knows but never mentions is:
“Kid: there are two kinds of people in life:
Those who know what’s really going on, and those who don’t,
and as far as I can tell: I’m the only person in the first category.

This is an important piece of possible information  --
but not for the reason those who don’t know would think.
If feelings of self importance (or self reference of any sort) had any part in this --
would not everyone know what is going on?!"