We All Suck. So, Let’s Get Together and Suck a Little Less
Accepting one another, flaws and all, can be the beginning of a new world
There is much about life and how we perceive it that is debated among those concerned with such matters. I doubt that a written text of a thousand volumes would cover it all. By “those concerned” I’m referring to news outlets, scientists, historians, religious leaders, religious believers, non-believers, skeptics…yes, pretty much everybody. We all have our own perceptions of the world around us, and they become deeply ingrained within our minds as we get older, making it extremely hard to change when change is called for.
According to psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists (and a few other “ists” that have a hand in this kind of research), our brains are wired for survival and to that end, we have developed brain functions that help us when things get scary. One example is what they call the Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD) which is more sensitive in some people than in others.
HADD is something that developed in the human brain over millennia to help us react quickly to potential dangers, and it still comes in handy under certain circumstances. “Agent” is the word used to refer to something or someone that acts on its volition. HADD assigns agency to unidentified sounds and snaps us into a state of preparedness when we hear, for example, a rustling in the bushes when we’re out walking alone. What is probably just the wind blowing could also be a wild animal hunting for food, or a violent criminal waiting to ambush us. While most of the time the noise is nothing to fear, our HADD keeps us alert, just in case.
There are other “devices” and hard-wired programs within our brains developed to help us make sense of the world around us. Some of these programs can hinder our ability, or just our willingness, to accept what is true because it conflicts with what we perceive within our own minds.
Pareidolia: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern
-Miriam-Webster Dictionary
If you’ve ever looked up at the clouds and seen them take the shapes of lions, fluffy cars, what you’d think the face of God might look like; that’s your brain engaging its pareidolia program. It’s an interesting facet of how our brains work because it can be shared with others. A dramatic example of this is when a devout Christian, most often a Catholic Christian, sees the image of a revered person of the faith — Christ or the Virgin Mary for instance — somewhere they might least expect it. People have seen these images in cactus flowers, in the patterns of water stains found on ceilings and walls, even on a slice of toasted bread. They then share what they see with others who, when they hear what the discoverer saw, their brains seek the pattern within the object and they, in turn, also see the image.
Many examples of pareidolia can be seen here:
https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-pareidolia-examples
Pareidolia is also an auditory phenomenon. We can be listening to white noise such as a fan, washing machine, the wind in the trees, anything really, and hear something we would swear was a voice, or maybe the sound of a child or pet, when no one is around. Our brain hears sounds and seeks out memories of similar noises that might help it to make sense of what it currently hears. When it doesn’t find an exact match, it grabs memories that sound similar, piecing together what it supposes might be what is going on at that moment.
This is how the old vinyl record trick of “back-masking” was born. Rumors began that a rock band had recorded a secret message on their album that fans could only hear when playing it backwards. When people listened to the garbled sound, seeking what they were told they should hear, their brains picked up the nonsense sounds and perceived them in the patterns suggested by the rumor.
The following link is a clip from a 1983 TBN show proposing that backward masking is spiritually dangerous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epCmTZx174A
As you probably noticed, after playing the Led Zeppelin song in reverse, the presenter spoke the words that were purported to have been intentionally backward masked onto it. He then played it again and many in the audience indicated that they, too, heard the supposed lyric. Like visual pareidolia, the aural version can be suggested into the mind of another.
One current example of aural pareidolia can be found on ghost-hunting “reality” shows on TV. As the investigators search the old buildings for signs of spiritual residents, the ambient sounds provide many opportunities for their minds to form words, supposedly spoken by the spirits they seek. When one person hears what they think are messages “from beyond”, they share it with their partner who, now listening for particular sounds, “hears” the message, too.
Optical illusions are another example of how easily our brain can be fooled.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/21-optical-illusions-that-prove-your-brain-sucks
We can easily misperceive colors, shapes, distances, and many other things with our eyes. We can even When we see something moving (a baseball, for instance) we aren’t really watching it move in real time, because isn’t enough time for our eyes to send the signal to the part of the brain that processes that information, the information to be interpreted, and our brains to identify that object as the one we began watching, to keep up with it. Instead, the brain anticipates where the item is going and causes us to “see” it as if it really is there. When the anticipated path changes, or if something happens mid-flight, our brain immediately tracks this and updates us so that we don’t miss anything. It happens almost seamlessly.
So, what is the point that I’m trying to make?
That our brain, the central control room of our body, uses shortcuts and devices to guide us through life. But, contrary to what is often assumed, the brain isn’t unlimited in its power. Our senses may be working, but our brains often misinterpret the data it receives from them. If this can happen with the senses, can this not be true when we employ our brains in abstract decision-making? If our brains can misunderstand the intel that our senses are relaying, then it’s likely that such misunderstanding will affect our reasoning.
We can be convinced that we heard someone in a dark, abandoned hotel speaking to us from the “other side”. So convinced, in fact, that we refuse to believe the truth even if it’s demonstrated to us in real time. Why? Because we clearly remember hearing the words being spoken and our brains, which have the pre-programmed belief that ghosts exist (and that ghosts inhabit the place where we heard the sounds), have enhanced that memory so vividly that there is no convincing us otherwise.
Our way of seeing the world around us, developed through the many channels of information that are at our disposal, plays a huge part in our brain’s assessment of data. If we have a particular learned prejudice, our take on a given fact will be perceived through that lens. It is another device our brains use for survival, by which we assess our environment and deem it safe or hazardous by comparing any current information against what we have already learned to accept as the truth. Anything that challenges what we are convinced is true or right is aggressively opposed by our brains, which seek to protect it from anything that might jeopardize our understanding of reality. This opposition to new data that conflicts with our grasp of reality is known as Cognitive Dissonance. It is a genuine obstacle to a fair and balanced society, and if we wish to succeed as, not only a society but as a species, it must be resolved. Cognitive Dissonance may well be the biggest hurdle we need to clear if we are to have peace and unity in our country, fueled by Cognitive Bias.
Cognitive Bias: a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own “subjective reality” from their perception of the input. An individual’s construction of reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behavior in the world. Wikipedia
Here is a link for more on the subject.
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases-index
Keeping our minds locked into antiquated, unhealthy belief systems has been the norm for many centuries. It took many years and, often, the loss of many lives to end erroneous ways of thinking and living such as slavery as an accepted labor source; anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism; child labor, and criminalizing homosexuality. But each of these, though still practiced in some parts of the world, are no longer considered by most of our country as acceptable. And this has greatly improved conditions for millions of citizens.
We can avoid all the misery and loss associated with wrong-minded and unjust social practices, not to mention unhealthy and/or dangerous beliefs (ie., anti-vaccination, questionable health supplements) by making a concerted effort to open our minds to views and beliefs that differ from our own. This is made easier when we remember we’re all at the mercy of our limited perceptional capacities. None of us are perfect. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, nor Catholics, Protestants, Jews, nor Muslims; Caucasian, African, Asian and every ethnic mix of humanity in between, we were all born with the same human frailties that our ancestors had. The sooner we accept this, the sooner we can start the real work of improving our lives through unity and cooperation. But this requires strict control over our own base assumptions, and rigidly following a simple — but not necessarily easy — set of rules:
1- Listen to one another with an open mind. This doesn’t mean we must accept what they say as true, but it does mean that we mustn’t shut down their opinions simply because they differ from our own.
2-Be polite and respectful when sharing your point of view, without taking this time to take potshots, to denigrate, or even hint at a “this is why I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude.
3- When meeting resistance to our opinion, disengage from the conversation to avoid the other person’s anger. Angry people are not in state of mind to listen to reason, no matter how brilliant you think your presentation of the facts may be.
4- Allow the other person time to consider your side of the situation. It isn’t easy to change a human’s mind to something they’ve opposed. Be patient with one another.
5- Always remember that you might be the one who is wrong. Just because you’re certain of a thing and have a huge following on social media that agrees with you, doesn’t mean you’re right. Be ready to concede the point and allow yourself the chance to think through the opposing viewpoint, because you both might be wrong. Argue only to seek the truth, not to win the debate.
We’re all sharing the same air on this planet. Let’s not pollute it with unnecessary strife simply because someone doesn’t agree with our way of living.
