Third in a series
As I extend my exploration of my own personal philosophy of life, I hope you will follow along as I continue in search of definitions on which to base further discussion. I really hope you find these wanderings of value and possibly interesting.
Our world is made up of what we can hear, see, taste, smell, touch and imagine. I think we all can agree on that.
But how we perceive that world is heavily influenced by a host of learned factors that color and add texture and nuance to that perception. What are these factors, these influences?
By and large, the greatest is our own experiences with life. Each of us, individually, have encountered a unique set of environmental stimuli which has been stored and processed by that incredible computer we have in our head called our brain.
I am not a scientist, nor do I claim to be a particularly well-educated person, nor am I all that much smarter than the average bear, but I have interviewed, interacted and even lived in close proximity with some people who are/were far smarter than the average bear as well as being scientists, specialists and experts in a wide range of human endeavors (Sounds like those TV commercials with one of the Baldwin brothers). That relatively unusual confluence of experiences does give me, I think, my own unique perspective on our world.
It is, for example, the reason I believe that the individual is far more important in human events than we give them credit for. And I am not talking about the “key man” theory of history, or anything related to that. I am more in the vein of the “want of a nail” theory of life or one where each of us, however insignificant we may think we are, plays a role in the greater scheme of things and without that influence, however small it may be, things could and would be different.
Now, you are free to disagree with me, but I have seen far too many instances of where instants make a difference and the sum of those instants make a major change in the course of events. Stop and think sometime about major events in your lifetime. Think about all the things that happened to you leading up to that event … the little things, that maybe delayed you a second or two here or there or a street light that you ran that got you to somewhere 20 seconds earlier than if you hadn’t ran it. Add all those “chance” happenings, multiply them by the number of people involved and you get an incredible array of possible outcomes that didn’t happen. Now, multiply that by all the events that happen in a day … and you will be overwhelmed … it is simply not something you or any computer would be able to handle. Then add in the factor that you have a choice and it is not always binary (yes/no, black/white, pass/fail, go/no-go) and you really begin to wonder. And every person faces the same thing and that is what has made up human history. (Now, I have read that some in quantum physics claim that all those multi-verses exist, but that it too much for me to deal with. Let’s deal with one universe at a time.)
Passing aside: People wonder why I question things like opinion polls and computer models. It is simple, they are too easily manipulated. Change one word here, or a byte there, and the whole thing goes spinning off in another direction.
There is a quote somewhere supposedly by Dwight Eisenhower that goes “Plans are useless, but planning is everything.” That is because plans make various assumptions that usually are not valid … or at least change before you get very far … and it is the planning process that allows you to anticipate the various alternatives that you have to choose from. Life is like that and each of us does our own planning.
So, please remember, that choice is integral to our world along with the person making that choice. Your choices are important.
Next, we have to consider what elements – like our experiences – shape the choices we make. Experience is only one of the things that give texture to our choices. Our environment, and by this I mean our social and cultural environment, also plays a major role, if not a definitive role. You see, our social and cultural environment determines what and how we think.
I know I just lost some people there, so I will step back and make another run at it. What we think and how we think is a product not only of our experience but the language we are brought up and steeped in. That is our social and cultural heritage, our environment, so to speak.
Without language, we cannot think. It is language that gives us the ability to shape our thoughts and imaginings into words that we can share with others. We don’t have the ability to transfer our thoughts via telepathy (well, most of us don’t) and imagery goes just so far with intangible things, so we are limited in how we transmit information from one person to another to words that we agree on what they mean (language). It also is how in our brain that we process and organize those thoughts and ideas that we seek to express.
The words we choose to give wings to our thoughts – whether in written form like this essay or aural so that we hear it – make a major difference in how those thoughts are perceived. And it is important to remember that others have different social and cultural associations with those words even if you are speaking the same language, which in the vast majority of cases around the world we are not.
How we decide to use those words is what our social and cultural environment teaches us. We learn words from all sorts of sources in our lives, and our vocabulary and accent often defines us to various people and groups of people. If you haven’t read or seen the play Pygmalion or the musical play/movie My Fair Lady, then you missed an exercise in what I am saying.
But words, written or spoken, are used because we have agreed on (sort of kinda maybe) a definition of what they mean. Our society/our culture define the words we share, but each of us has our own customized definitions for each word.
Suffice it to say, the cultural environment that you are born into and then chose to live in defines you and helps shape the choices you make and the words you chose to express your beliefs. Again, however, it is very individual and despite what some people will have you believe, just because you share a lot of opinions, views, beliefs with others, it does not mean that you don’t have your own mind. Remember you, and those not-you, are different and each one not-you is a unique individual. (Take that, stereotypes!)
Yes, culture through language often encourages conformity, as does our own need for acceptance and companionship, but it does not negate the reality that each of us is an individual, who perceives the world through our own eyes, our own prism, our own separate set of parameters and paradigms.
One of the hardest parts of “growing up”, I think, is coming to grips with the fact that we indeed are all different. That we really are unique in our own way and that means that we are separate from others. That can be a very discomforting thought for a lot of people because, to introduce a new concept here, people are part herd and part pack animals. (OH! Did I forget to say that we are part of Nature’s Animal Kingdom? Well, we are, so get over it.)
Nuff said for this round … I hope it gives you something to think about.
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