Perspectives Matter. Being able to SHIFT Your Perspective Matters As Well.

There is a danger in EACH of us in becoming too fixed in our beliefs. That is like locking in a perspective and treating it as though it cannot be wrong. This is very dangerous, and can turn any of us into a fool.

We can view our perspective as being more probable, and that is even natural, yet we should not treat it as an absolute and without the possibility of being wrong. We must strive to resist this nature to be RIGHT and never be wrong. We must adjust our perspective when those things that don't make sense are YELLING at us. There can be a danger in ignoring the pieces that don't fit, because that means we have to try to determine a new perspective. That takes effort. It can be scary. It can be depressing. Yet that is the path truth seekers walk. Discarding the things that don't fit, that offend, or that are not politically "correct" is not seeking the truth. It is dogmatic, absolute, authoritarian, and tyrannical approach to thinking. It is not freedom. It is not equality. It is not diversity, it is conformity. When it comes to diversity skin color should be the least important measure of that. Our minds, our creativity, and our cultures are what true diversity is about. If people demand that everyone conform in thought. That is the opposite of diversity.

I was looking at the temperature yesterday and I started having one of my introspective mental exercises. It is kind of silly, but it does illustrate perspectives and how they can totally change "truth".

When I woke up yesterday it was 1 Degree Fahrenheit. Later in the day it was 7 Degrees Fahrenheit.

So was it SEVEN TIMES warmer than when I woke up?

1F to 7F. Math would have us think that it is indeed 7 times warmer. I can tell you it certainly did not FEEL seven times warmer so that is what kicked off my thinking about perspective.

What if we shift our perspective?

In science the common unit of measurement for temperature is Kelvin.

1F in Kelvin is actually 255.9 Kelvin.
7F in Kelvin is actually 259.3 Kelvin.

So that would be about a 1.3% increase in warmth. THAT I could believe.

It is all a matter of perspective, and there are usually far more than TWO though our society loves putting things into only TWO CHOICES. This is known as a false dichotomy.

"You are either with us, or you are against us."

"Enemies of my enemies, are my friends" (Dangerous... and the predator you suddenly think is your friend licks it's lips)

"Home vs Visitor"

"Republican vs Democrat"

"Left vs Right"

"Liberal vs Conservative"

"Trump vs Anti-Trump"

"Agree With Me or you are a Nazi, a Racist, a Homophobe, a White Supremacist, a Black Supremacist, an [insert derogatory label here]"

There are almost ALWAYS more choices than the two that people are being forced into by propaganda, media, or just someone trying to force others to agree with their perspective.

Let's look at my temperature example.

What if we use Celsius? Oh, wow that's a third perspective.

1F is -17.2 Celsius.
7F is -13.9 Celsius.

That is a 19% increase in warmth. :)

Which is true?

If you pick one, are you right?

Could you be wrong?

Are you willing to consider you could be wrong?

I can tell you that the Kelvin example felt a lot closer to FEEL than the Fahrenheit perspective. The Celsius also likely FEELS closer.

It certainly did not FEEL seven times warmer. Yet, when it is cold you reach a point where you can only really tell dramatic changes in temperature.

It's all in the perspective.

These same thought experiments can be applied to pretty much anything we wish to think about. Should we be rigid and so certain we are correct? Should we immediately discard anything that challenges our ideas?

I do discard some things. To people that are just encountering me for the first time on a topic they may think I am doing exactly what I am warning against. I can see how it may seem that way if you don't know me, and my past.

I will discard some things if I've already heard the thing before and researched it. If some new aspect of that is pointed out that I haven't heard before I'll take it seriously. I'll look into it and I'll consider it.

Just because it is the first time you have mentioned it to me, doesn't mean someone else didn't beat you to it and I didn't already look into it and consider it.

The place I encounter this the most is when I express me extreme dislike of communism, and socialism. I did not develop these dislikes rapidly. It took years of research. It took debating with many people. It took many cases where I was definitely coming out to be the fool in the debate when the person pointed out things in history, and people I didn't know about. I made an effort to learn from these and look into these people.

So anytime I write on that subject I will have people trot out the same tropes and things I have heard before. On that topic hearing something truly new to look into is becoming a rarer thing.

The easiest way to change my perspective on those things would be to show how they could exist in a VOLUNTARY society, which is the only type of society I'll endorse. As far as I can tell both of those ideologies can only exist through INVOLUNTARY means where authority figures (or MOB authority) are allowed to force compliance, and take choice away from people. The anathema to freedom.

Freedom comes with risk.

Attempts to remove risk also remove freedom.

Which is more important to you will likely shape which perspectives you tend to best identify with.

Does that mean you are right?

Does that mean I am right?

Does it mean I am wrong?

Does it mean you are wrong?

All of those are possible. Perspective matters.

Which is the most probable can be subjective except if you only look at facts and not opinion.

Facts don't care about opinions, beliefs, or emotions.

Ignoring history also does not mean it didn't happen. History is important. Your conclusions about history can vary and you'll likely have different perspectives. That is better than simply ignoring it. That is better than attempting to hide or censor it so those opportunities for people to learn from the past are lost.

Learning history is not only about the pleasant moments. It is also not only about the negative moments. It is about it all. Something you don't like in history does not cease to exist if you wipe out the evidence it existed. All that happens is that you close the door to learning from the failures and successes of the past.

You remove a bit of wisdom that it may have taken many lifetimes to achieve. You doom the society to repeating a lot of the same mistakes. You close the door to them perhaps fixing some situation they are in by using things that were successes in the past.

If you seek to erase the villains from the past it can be easy to forget these villains were human. I've never met a human that didn't make mistakes. Sure there are some vile human beings. That does not mean there was nothing of value to their life to learn from.

We also will often find information that was HIDDEN, CENSORED, SUPPRESSED, or IGNORED that changes the perspective on historical figures, and situations.

If they are wiped from the collective memory by intentionally obliterating signs of them how can those updates, corrections, and new perspectives occur?

This was what a lot of the protestors as Charlottesville were actually protesting. While there were White Supremacists there. The bulk of the people on that side were nothing of the sort. They were realists. They knew that erasing history and removing statues was a dangerous thing, and was nothing more than censoring history.

It didn't mean the people LIKED the person portrayed in the statue. They just care about history not being erased. It is dangerous. It is embracing ignorance. It is people reacting to emotion, and obliterating anything they don't like. It is FORCING what others are allowed to see, say, think, etc. It is conformity, and anti-diversity in the truest sense of the word.