Perceptions

Perceptions

We can look at several photographs of one landmark, each taken from a different perspective, or just look at one. If we look at just one landmark photo from one perspective, we would have very limited knowledge of how the landmark scene actually appears. Seeing more photos increases our perspective.

We could go deeper; say we’ve looked at twenty photos taken as the photographer moved around the landmark... would that cover every single potential perspective of it? How about if we double the number of shots going around the landmark so we’ll have forty snaps; would that then give us the total perspective of it? The answer is no.

There’s an easier way to look at all of this however.

Seeing all the perspective views of the landmark in photographs would require lots of photographs, taken from every angle from every direction, but finding perspective doesn’t have to be tedious. We’d get all the perspective necessary to appreciate the landmark without requiring all the possible views.

Perspective doesn’t only include pictures for us to view; it also includes our store of knowledge, our concepts and our character. It includes our moral beliefs, our understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and our devotion to finding the truth, rather than accepting someone else’s explanation because it’s convenient.

Convenience comes in assorted colors and flavors, like “just going along” or “he knows more about it than me.” Of course, something like this has a name too… “that’s a cop-out.” Having cop-outs ready when needed is required these days, especially on social media. It’s likely that many active social media users adopt someone else’s perception in order to “fit in.”

We do it in real life too; if there’s a group we like, we do our best to show them we agree with them on everything. It doesn’t matter whether we actually do or not; in time we will, through conditioning. Their perceptions of just about anything become our perceptions, and then we award them “mentor” status, and, in some cases, we might start a cult, we’re so “tuned in.”

How do you perceive things you really know nothing about? Would you accept someone else’s personal perceptions?

It’s likely that most of us would, if we feel pressured to decide and we know the perspective of the group already. Since we want to be in the group, we accept their perspectives, even ones we don’t know about, that’ll likely surprise us down the road. It’s inevitable.

Increasingly less people think for themselves these days, and many seem to go along and can’t answer why. They don’t know. They don’t have time to relax and consider. Things change so fast, no one can keep up. So, like a trusty machine, we absorb what’s sent down the assembly line, and do with it what we’ve been trained to do. Obey.

Formulated perceptions might reveal more. We might even learn something new and valuable about something we previously didn’t know.

_{Perceptions © free-reign 2020}

Thanks for reading!

Sources for images used in this post:

(Public Domain photos are from Wikimedia Commons)

_{Edipresse Tower: Thomas Guignard from Lausanne, Switzerland / CC BY-SA
Sydney Opera House: Marcello Gamez / CC BY-SA}