A Fluid State of Wrongness

Nobody likes to be wrong. This is a given, but what is wrong with being wrong? If you think about it, we are pretty much in a fluid state of wrongness. Being wrong is merely the absence of correct information or the acceptance of incorrect information, at the time of being questioned, or for as long as anyone practices whatever thoughts or ideas they have had until their moment of clarity or new found understanding. We have all been wrong many times in our life, and will be many more times in the future. The world used to be flat, remember? I think the big problem is we pin “wrong” as an aspect of our personality instead of the absence of correct, or presence of incorrect, information in our mind. Why do we do that? It’s no big deal to be wrong people, everything is ok. I am not afraid of being wrong, it is actually sometimes exciting when I find out I am wrong about something; it brings on a whole new spectrum of thoughts and ideas. I truly believe if we dropped the fear of being wrong, we could have more honest discussions involving politics in our country. You can watch the news on any given day and see a slew of arguments, court rooms, debates, talk shows, whatever you want to listen to, and no one is ever wrong! Possibly it is because we plant our feet and push as hard as possible in the opposite direction. We are so bull headed we refuse to give a split second to the thought of trying to see the other side of the argument, our time is too precious, if we just keep pushing they should break down any second!

People are like horses

I’ve had horses all my life and been around other horse people all my life. Watching different people train horses will teach you a lot about how to deal with people. Horses for the most part have been trained by force, which works, but it breaks the animal down. That’s why they call it “Breaking horses”. I never actually trained horses myself, but over the last few years I have watched my wife train horses, and it really made an impression on me in the way I deal with people. The way she trains is, she tries to see from the perspective of the horse. As soon as you try to understand the opposing force, something magical happens. Instead of the both of you fighting tooth and nail to get what you want, both of you are fighting tooth and nail to understand the opposition! I swear people you can see it in the actions of the horse! Once respect has been established, the horse’s full attention is on her, trying to figure out what it is that she is doing, wanting to interact with her in a compromising way. It does not take long before they have a relationship established that is far stronger than the relationship between any to parties that has ever been established by force and submission. So now this is what I do with people that think differently than I. I try my best not to prove myself correct, but to prove them correct. I do everything I can to try and make their point of view better than mine. In this exchange of respect, whichever party has the idea that makes more logical sense, usually has the privilege of spreading this knowledge to a receptive audience that does not feel ashamed, beat down, or … wrong.

 

Logic / Emotion

It seems (to me) as if the biggest problems between the political Left and Right, is understanding where emotion ends, and logic begins. Emotion is what drives us to solve problems, logic is what is used to actually solve them. Emotion should never be part of solving a problem. It’s my understanding that doctors are recommended not to work on their family for this very reason. Their decisions need to be based on data, statistics, math and science, not emotion. Emotion is where the fear of being wrong comes from. If you are problem solving using logic and you find out information you have is wrong….delete….its gone. No whining and complaining and saying this or that, blah blah blah. Emotion is a manipulating factor that has no place whatsoever in problem solving. I’m not just hating on emotion, I love it, it’s what makes us humans, it is the backbone of what makes America so wonderful. Emotion is what drives us to do good things in this world, but remember, it can trick you if you let it. You may think we have done something good because we “solved” a problem using emotion instead of logic, but the truth is, without using logic you never saw all the side effects and backlashes from what we did….you just walked away feeling good.

 

Take a look in the mirror

Just in case your holding back your acceptance of me, and this article, because your not sure yet if I am a Democrat, Republican, Liberal, or a Conservative, have no fear, I dont have a clue what I am. I am a registered Republican because I have never seen anyone in the democrat primary I would vote for, but that does not mean it won’t happen. I like to think that I’m a middle of the road democrat, newer age republican, libertarian with conservatively liberal views with low air pressure in the front right tire……I pull to the right.

I would like to leave you with this. I tried to think of two current issues that the Left and Right really but heads against and with fury. Both sides think that their view is so clear and that the other side is so foolish not to be able to see! Well I beg of you to try and see the other side. I am not asking you to accept it, I’m just asking you to try and understand it.

Please fill in the blanks in the following sentence with what you think before you scroll down and continue reading. Whatever you put in the first blank is the same thing that goes in the last blank.

 

All _______ are not bad, but most _______  ______ are caused by ______. Therefore they should be banned.

 

 

If your a liberal, did it read, ” All guns are not bad, but most mass killings are caused by guns. Therefore they should be banned.”

If your a conservative,  did it read, “All Muslims are not bad, but most terror attacks are caused by Muslims. Therefore they should be banned.”

 

If we ban guns, only the criminals will break the law and have guns, and the law abiding citizens will suffer.

If we ban Muslims, only the criminals will break the law and sneak in, leaving the law abiding peaceful ones to suffer.

 

Now I’m not suggesting any solutions here, we may get into that in a later article. I am just trying to establish an understanding between opposing forces. Its basically the exact same sentence, just with the subjects changed. It seems so clear for the exact same reasons in the complete opposite way for each party. Why is it so hard to understand each other? It’s not. It’s hard to admit your wrong, but remember, wrong is just the absence or misinterpretation of data. So let it go. Don’t be ashamed, be thankful; whoever enlightened you very well may be enlightened by you next week! It’s just your emotions. Lets start using emotion for what it’s good for, driving us to find and obliterate problems with a passion that is more alive in the USA than anywhere in the world.

Remember folks, just try to put yourself in the other persons shoes; do unto others as you would want them to do to you.

Please share and comment, I’d love to hear from you.

Ya’ll come back,

Buck

-Dirty hands make a clean conscious