Wow, it’s really sad when any kind of writing presented by a university-trained intellectual will inevitably bring out responses from those who are clearly dragging one side of their head against the ground. Perhaps it’s that so many people still use those cave man instincts for proving dominance? Me have PhD behind my name, so me Big Man! It’s not something that I would expect to see from supposedly distinguished and learned individuals, but I guess that I still have much to learn about base human motivations.
In a society where labels and titles promote a person’s standings within our hierarchical society, it’s more than a little frightening to hear words that are designed to build walls of deafness. And when one biased intellect battles against an intellect from a specialty external to his field, then there seems to be little chance of actually hearing a meaningful word exchange that would lead to open communications. Each side insists that it has the only right answer. Right… and that is why we have the color gray in our spectrum. Because there is no one right answer. There are, however, lots of answers that didn’t fit a specific scenario. It doesn’t make them wrong, just not right for that specific situation.
Yes, education does sometimes place a person in a much better position to engage with facts in a confrontational manner. But exactly where does this confrontation normally lead us? Not to anywhere productive, that’s for sure. Ideology has much to answer for the state that we’re in. And the same goes for pure emotion, which can at times create disasters left in its wake. We really need to learn to see the bigger picture, and not just the picture that makes us look right.
We’re clearly meant to use both intellect and emotion hand in hand. I would think that this is what makes us different from any other living creature. Together they inspire some sense of logic. Although we all know that logic in itself differs depending on the way a person perceives logic as truth. And since no two people have the same sense of what is truly logical if they don’t both utilize intellect and emotion in similar manners, then we are caught in a dilemma that negates any form of certainty. The only thing that we can be certain of is that everything comes with uncertainty as long as humans are involved.
We were given the color gray for a reason: So that we can learn to have open communications and continue to learn from one another. There is nothing that is simply black or white. No human being will ever learn every bit of knowledge that is available in our known universe. So all of these arguments to prove one’s absolute truth seem quite pointless as long as we keep thinking that I alone have all of the right answers. Because no one does. And if they say they do, then the burden of proof is on their side, isn’t it?
But remember, if they do provide proof, then it’s up to us to review it with an open mind. This leads us to close the gap by creating a circle of knowledge that keeps feeding the growth cycle. Otherwise, the other vicious circle that we usually experience just keeps feeding the vicious endlessly.
