Be Responsible For Your Perceptions
I’m sure everyone reading this has at least heard of the fact that you and your perceptions are shaped by your environment.
It’s very important to be conscious of that, because a lot of the time you won’t even notice your own self and views changing because of your environment.
A lot of the time you will surround yourself with like-minded people. It’s a natural thing, which sounds nice, but can lead to ignorance.
It’s important to have people who are of a different mind around you. That will lead to more balanced views on anything and everything you can imagine.
If a person is ignorant of other’s perceptions, there’s no truth behind their own perceptions.
My experience:
I experienced this in my three months living in student dorms. My roommates all had different views on everything you can imagine. We disagreed on a lot of stuff. At any parties we had, we all sat at one table, all of a different mind, and expressed why we believe what we believe.
As to avoid any political bias, and keep a purely philosophical tone, I won’t delve into any details of the disagreements.
As far as I’m aware, none of us changed anything about our views, however, all of us gained a deeper understanding of others, as well as a deeper understanding of what we believe and why we believe it.
I understood where other people are coming from, and I also saw potential flaws in my own thinking, and sought to fix those.
Only then I realized that before this experience, I was mostly stuck in an echo-chamber with people who mostly agree with what I think.
You don’t have to agree with anyone you don’t agree with, but just hearing those different points will make you understand why other people don’t agree, and why you don’t agree with them.
But be careful:
There is, however, a possible danger to surrounding yourself with different perspectives. Because, while I believe most people are somewhat open-minded in your life you will encounter people who are radical about their views.
Those are the people with whom no productive conversation can be had. People who won’t listen, if they even let you talk at all. Beware of those, because that will only lead to conflict.
I, myself am yet to encounter a personality like that, however, I have heard stories. A lot of internet personalities are like that too, definitely don’t let that crap affect you.
Those people will try to ‘bully’ you into accepting what they say as the absolute truth. And anybody who claims absolute truth is a liar. It’s important to recognize such people, and not cave in under the pressure.
Such personalities can be strong persuaders, and will use every tool available to them against you.
The best solution to deal with people like that, is either only talk about something very casual or routine. Or if they won’t leave you alone, and try to constantly push their perceptions onto you, cut them out. They probably won’t change. You can try, but don’t bet anything on it.
But whatever you do, never ever become like them. Never think that the only way to persuade such a radical individual is to respond with the same radicality and close-mindedness.
“The best revenge is not to be like that.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
To sum up, surrounding yourself with different perceptions is taking responsibility for your own perceptions — knowing what you think and why. Being aware that your mission isn’t to change or agree with other perceptions. Being aware that you can’t disagree with ‘the other side’ if you don’t even know what is the root of said disagreement.
And this is applicable to every matter, big or small, important or dismissible. Ranging from the very little things such as how you like your coffee (or even if you like coffee at all) to important political or ethical issues.
I’m not saying that will resolve any of these disagreements, what I am saying is that only when you know other perceptions can you truly understand and defend your own. Recognize that only you are responsible for what you think, and only others are responsible for what they think. Ignorance is no excuse.
