Both political sides accuse the other of not being in touch with reality.
Which one is correct?
It must be you. Right?
After all, you know what is real don’t you?
Your friends back you up and the media you tune into, know the same thing.
So – if the other party says it isn’t so – then they are out of touch with reality.
But if you ask the other side, all of the above is also true of them.
How is that possible?
Aliens!
They are here on this Planet!
They look like us, but they are from an altogether different reality.
This is real folks.
Wait! Wait!
Don’t start screaming or break out the aluminum foil hats.
And please… don’t call for a straight jacket. 🙂
These are not Aliens from outer space.
I’m referring to the Aliens from inner space.
We have met the Aliens and they are Us.
We live in the reality in our heads.
Our mental framework is our reality and it does not necessarily correspond to what is.
What you think you know isn’t necessarily so.
Both sides of an argument may not be in touch with what is.
We live in a subjective reality constructed by our minds, from which we relate to objective reality.
If our realities – our mental frameworks – are too different – we literally live in different worlds.
If we do not have a common reality, we are as alien to each other, and as unable to communicate, as if we were physically from another planet.
Without a common platform of ideas, beliefs, culture or something unifying, it is very difficult to relate.
Therefore, it is vitally important we codify a standard of Foundational American Values which everyone can assimilate to.
With no common platform,
not only do we have to figure out the world we live in, we have to figure out everyone else’s inner world to be able to relate without stepping on their toes or other land mines, so to speak.
Since our realities are inside our heads, the differences are not obvious until we encounter the situation that reveals how alien we are to each other.
If we don’t run away or attack with anger and work together to find a way to synchronize our inner realities, we could have a successful relationship. But mostly people run away or attack, since the, fight or flight, animal instinct in us hates the stranger. Want proof? Look around yourself. Didn’t you surround yourself with a group that shares similar views? Are you not rejected by others in differing groups and don’t people in your group make fun of others?
We, as a culture, focused so much on outer differences of race and gender that we have allowed inner differences to divide us just as much or even more than the outer ones did.
If you are not in the same political party, the reaction is just as bad, short of lynching, as any former racial hatred. Ku Klux Democrats and Ku Klux Republicans are fighting even as you are reading this. Then there are Ku Klux RonPaulsters and Naderites and Environmentalists, Gay bashers, Anti-Semites, God and Religion haters and even just Ku Klux Christmas decoration haters. At the extreme are the domestic crazies and the Islamic terrorists, who murder anyone not conforming to their inner reality.
When people had religion and a more prevalent Judeo-Christian secular culture in common, it wasn’t as difficult to relate to each other, despite diffferences that currently divide us, since more of our inner cues were in synch.
In todays culture, there is no common platform of training. We are told there is no moral certainty. One set of mores is as good as another. We are conditioned to celebrate our diversity and not to discriminate, based on the outside.
To make matters worse, we are Alien to objective reality too.
None of us live in the objective reality that science studies and measures with their instruments. We are always out of step with objective reality due to the amount of time it takes for signals from our senses to be processed, then travel, chemically and electrically, to the brain and then for the data to be assembled and processed into our awareness.
The data from our senses is insufficient to construct a full picture of objective reality so the brain fills in the gaps from prior data. If something has changed outside your field of vision, you won’t see it. You will see what the brain has constructed.
Only when you move your eyes and the change comes into your field of vision will you perceive it. If it is too fast, you will not see it at all.
That’s how Magicians do some of their tricks. They distract your attention and get you to focus away from what their hands are doing right in front of you. By the time your attention shifts back, it is too late to see what they did. You did not see objective reality. You saw an incorrect older image the brain constructed. In your subjective reality, nothing happened. Viola! Magic!
Perhaps you have noticed, in your interactions with others, the proliferation of misunderstanding.
People seem to be hearing something other than what you are saying.
Words are taken out of context.
People respond to questions you didn’t ask.
They take offense at sleights you didn’t make or even intend.
There seems to be no common ground to stand on.
They don’t see what is clear, common sense to you or vice-versa.
What is going on? Why is it so difficult to communicate, much less agree?
A person’s philosophy is a person’s reality. – Dr Society
Our reality is filtered by the philosophy we are programmed with.
That’s why facts aren’t enough to convince. The filter of our inner reality determines what of outside reality is allowed in and how or if it fits with preconceptions and prejudice.
That is why it is so easy for Politicians to lie to you. You hear what you want to hear from their imprecise words. Hope, change, fundamental transformation, Forward. They hire armies of word smiths to craft their speeches to deceive you.
Even when people, who are programmed by differing Political parties, agree on the same facts, communication is not necessarily possible because their priorities and the way their minds are organized is different. As an analogy, imagine we have a list of names in our mind. The lists are the same but one is ordered from A to Z and the other person’s list is ordered from Z to A.
Your facts are the same. You can both agree about who is on the list and who is in the middle of the list. But who’s on first? Who is last? Bam, you are arguing. Not about facts but about how facts are organized and prioritized. Until you get in sync with the other, communication is impossible.
Aliens can’t communicate with each other until they experience the other’s reality. In today’s culture, that is an extraordinary effort.
Our mistake in dealing with each other is expecting to communicate without extraordinary effort.
We all have different versions of Reality created by what we are told, our environment and our physical capabilities.
The differences are exacerbated by propaganda, advertising, faulty education and muddled language.
To understand another person, we must glean their Philosophy, Filters, and the organization of their mind.
When we realize that we are all Aliens from inner space, and that it is very difficult to understand each other, maybe we’ll take a moment to clarify and make sure we really know what the other means before we start yelling and insulting each other. And maybe we will define and teach Foundational American Values as a bridge with which to relate to all Americans.
