"Belief" is a funny thing.
Now, before anyone gets their shorts in an uproar, I'm not talking religion here, I'm talking about "belief" in the context of what we generally (individually, and collectively) hold to be true about the world around us, and existence in general.
To preface: I get all manners of newsy email in my in-box every day. I say "all manners" because I have visited (and often signed up for updates/newsletters) a very wide spectrum of web sites and forums, as far as politics, finance and sociology goes.
I often get accused of "fence sitting" because I am seldom deeply entrenched in one perspective or another; I prefer to think of myself as an adherent to the philosophy of having perspectives rather than rattling sabers behind specific causes. If you don't truly and deeply understand who your "enemy" is and what they believe, how do you even KNOW that they actually are the enemy? Because someone else told you? Because it suits your reality?
Anyway, to get back to the flood of emails and "beliefs" what I find particularly fascinating about the Human Condition is the way we tend to fixate — often without question or inquiry into the associated veracity — on those things that support our general beliefs about reality... while simultaneously remaining largely blind to those things that might poke holes in the foundations of those very beliefs.
At the most extreme end of the spectrum, we find those who take what is — ultimately — just a "perspective" and start labeling it as "the absolute facts."
One of my old friends down in Portland, OR has been a dedicated "Free Speech Activist" for over 30 years. He's outspoken and provocative, and has frequently been banned, both from virtual spaces, as well as from physical spaces. I wrote a piece about him, a few years back, if you care.
Anyway, he's just one member of a growing trend of visitors to my email space who seems to have fallen prey to the cognitive blindness disease that seems to be "closing minds" all over the place. What I mean by that is the way we humans like to seek out and highlight information that supports our perspectives and point to it as "absolute fact" while ignoring and dismissing equally compelling information that questions our perspectives and point to that as "nonsense and hearsay."
Truth is, there's very little we truly know about the greater situation in the world, and who's actually pulling which strings and precisely what their underlying motivations are. We can suppose to know that things are being done for benevolent reasons, or nefarious reasons, or for the money, or for power, or for total world domination or God knows what else... but who actually has the bone dry FACTS?
Certainly not I...
And even when we have those facts, how do we choose to interpret them? So often, you can have something be an absolutely documented fact and yet... according to one person's perspective that's "a terrible thing" and according to another person's perspective" that's "a WONDERFUL thing!"
And yet, a fact is just a fact. But the fact "74 degrees" might mean "it's WARM" to one person, and "iy's COLD" to another. Who's "right?" Nobody? Both?
A wise and insightful person once pointed out that we humans have TWO ears to listen with and ONE mouth to speak with... and yet most people spend far more time using their mouth than their ears.
Somehow, I can't stop thinking about an old saying, from local Texas politics: "Don't confuse me with the FACTS when my mind is already made up!"
I'm not sure what the deeper "message" is, in all this, other than the general observation that we so often fall into the "trap" of making it more important to BE RIGHT than to HAVE UNDERSTANDING of the situations and events we face.
I tend to not "invest myself" in very many worldly arguments because so often most parties miserably FAIL what I call the "but how do you KNOW that?" test. Of course people have lots of ideas about how they "know" things... but they fall apart when I reiterate "yes, but how do YOU know that?"
Truly? I think we know very little. I know I know very little. So I guess I'll just leave it at that... and keep digging and learning.
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
How about YOU? Do we ever REALLY know what the facts are? Or do we get "stuck" in our BELIEFS about situations and events? Do you find it hard or easy to "change direction" when new information is revealed? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20210904 17:22 PDT
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