Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the fact everyone thinks differently is an advantage. Some people have no inner monologue while others, like me, have a constant chatter of a dozen or so voices vying to talk. Some people are idealists while others are pragmatists. Mankind has a diversity of ways of thinking. This is an advantage to us. But how is it an advantage for people to think differently, doesn’t it create chaos and strife? The advantage comes from the ability of a group of people to look at a problem from several angles, to get a better perspective. Disasters strike when the powerful demand we see the world the way they want, making us into bricks, to build a tower of Babel. Our natural tendency is to see other perspectives as flawed. Sages, however, exploit other perspectives to see the whole.
The three blind men and an elephant adage works here. Three blind men touch an elephant. One touches its trunk, another touches the leg, and the third touches the beast’s side. When asked later to describe the elephant, each gives a different account. Combine the accounts, however, and you have a decent picture of an elephant. A huge beast, with a snakelike trunk, that has stout legs. All problems are like the elephant and we’re like the blind men. We see them from our own Bacon’s cave, then discuss them in Bacon’s Marketplace, even as the philosophers attribute them to Bacon’s Theater. Each of us takes our own perspective as the only valid one. Because we see it. Combine our perspectives and we have a much better view of the whole. Focusing the diffuse, however, is a difficult task.
The first step to a society’s ability to combine the fragmented into a whole, is to allow all the perspectives to speak. If one of the blind men was told to shut up, the others may never know the elephant is huge, or has a trunk, or stout legs. Censoring an opinion then is blinding. Because it closes off a perspective, carefully discerned from someone’s Bacon’s cave. Moreover, censorship ensures the idols of the marketplace are wrong, because not all perspectives are included. Those without the understanding that everyone thinks differently, are quick to silence dissenting voices, because those voices make no sense to them whatsoever. How can we allow unintelligible “gobbledygook” to be spoken in the presence of our logic and reason? That’s why we’re so often blindsided.
We have ears, eyes, noses, skin and tongues. Each adds a perspective to our understanding of reality. What if those abilities were distributed among people instead of universal? Those who can taste would have to rely on those who can see, as they would have to rely on those who can hear. Vision would be absurd to the tasters, hearers, touchers, and smellers. Just as taste wouldn’t make sense to a seer but it would to a smeller. No one would argue that one sense should be excluded for being disinformation. Yet that’s exactly what many do when they censor others. Ignorantly cutting all of society off from critical, though misunderstood, perspectives. Ways of thinking, however, are distributed among people. That’s why we have to consider each when assembling the peices.
Therefore a diversity of ways of thinking is a strong advantage to the human race… an advantage that we often squander foolishly. When we allow others to be censored we are literally blinding ourselves. Then we complain loudly we walked into the doorjamb face-first. You would think after chipping a tooth a few times, we would learn to listen to those warning us to slow down, or we’ll run into the doorjamb. Because that diversity of ways of thinking is only an advantage if we use it. A bulldozer is of no use if we refuse to start it… though if operated it can do astounding things. Our diversity of perspectives is the same. It can show us wonders and save us from disasters… if only we pay attention. This is why uniformity of thought makes us into mental bricks… to build to a tower of Babel.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
The Elephant In The Room
Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the fact everyone thinks differently is an advantage. Some people have no inner monologue while others, like me, have a constant chatter of a dozen or so voices vying to talk. Some people are idealists while others are pragmatists. Mankind has a diversity of ways of thinking. This is an advantage to us. But how is it an advantage for people to think differently, doesn’t it create chaos and strife? The advantage comes from the ability of a group of people to look at a problem from several angles, to get a better perspective. Disasters strike when the powerful demand we see the world the way they want, making us into bricks, to build a tower of Babel. Our natural tendency is to see other perspectives as flawed. Sages, however, exploit other perspectives to see the whole.
The three blind men and an elephant adage works here. Three blind men touch an elephant. One touches its trunk, another touches the leg, and the third touches the beast’s side. When asked later to describe the elephant, each gives a different account. Combine the accounts, however, and you have a decent picture of an elephant. A huge beast, with a snakelike trunk, that has stout legs. All problems are like the elephant and we’re like the blind men. We see them from our own Bacon’s cave, then discuss them in Bacon’s Marketplace, even as the philosophers attribute them to Bacon’s Theater. Each of us takes our own perspective as the only valid one. Because we see it. Combine our perspectives and we have a much better view of the whole. Focusing the diffuse, however, is a difficult task.
The first step to a society’s ability to combine the fragmented into a whole, is to allow all the perspectives to speak. If one of the blind men was told to shut up, the others may never know the elephant is huge, or has a trunk, or stout legs. Censoring an opinion then is blinding. Because it closes off a perspective, carefully discerned from someone’s Bacon’s cave. Moreover, censorship ensures the idols of the marketplace are wrong, because not all perspectives are included. Those without the understanding that everyone thinks differently, are quick to silence dissenting voices, because those voices make no sense to them whatsoever. How can we allow unintelligible “gobbledygook” to be spoken in the presence of our logic and reason? That’s why we’re so often blindsided.
We have ears, eyes, noses, skin and tongues. Each adds a perspective to our understanding of reality. What if those abilities were distributed among people instead of universal? Those who can taste would have to rely on those who can see, as they would have to rely on those who can hear. Vision would be absurd to the tasters, hearers, touchers, and smellers. Just as taste wouldn’t make sense to a seer but it would to a smeller. No one would argue that one sense should be excluded for being disinformation. Yet that’s exactly what many do when they censor others. Ignorantly cutting all of society off from critical, though misunderstood, perspectives. Ways of thinking, however, are distributed among people. That’s why we have to consider each when assembling the peices.
Therefore a diversity of ways of thinking is a strong advantage to the human race… an advantage that we often squander foolishly. When we allow others to be censored we are literally blinding ourselves. Then we complain loudly we walked into the doorjamb face-first. You would think after chipping a tooth a few times, we would learn to listen to those warning us to slow down, or we’ll run into the doorjamb. Because that diversity of ways of thinking is only an advantage if we use it. A bulldozer is of no use if we refuse to start it… though if operated it can do astounding things. Our diversity of perspectives is the same. It can show us wonders and save us from disasters… if only we pay attention. This is why uniformity of thought makes us into mental bricks… to build to a tower of Babel.
Sincerely,
John Pepin