A few recent threads put me thinking about how often people end up weaponizing their own beliefs and their own inability to deal with disagreements and challenges to their views.
There is a saying attributed to Oprah:
"Don't back down just to keep the peace. Standing up for your belief builds self-confidence and self-esteem."
I happen to agree, but there are of course situations when one shold back down, consider whether he or she has enough self-confidence already, and/or choose something else over building self-esteem. A balance should be pursued, and to decide which it should be can be a considerable challenge in and of itself.
It can be difficult, even hazardous, to make concessions for other people. There are comfort and tranquility in being in environments that do not see fit to pay attention to alternate viewpoints. It is entirely conceivable that one may end up reliant on those environments to the point of being literally sick, oblivious or utterly confused when exposed to even the general lines of other perspectives when the time comes to leave the echo chamber. Worse still, the person may well fail to realize how out of touch he or she is exactly.
Which is precisely why leave the chamber we all should, often and sincerely. There are bitter findings to be attained on the outside, but turning our backs to them solves nothing. Besides, many of those findings are liberating and very gratifying indeed once we learn to deal with them.
What can be somewhat less obvious is that over-reliance on predictable, safe environments imposes a toll on those from the outside as well. People who are lacking in familiarity with a wider range of environments will often develop a genuine difficulty to both understand other people and to make themselves truly understood.
That is never a good thing, although it can be tempting in certain circunstances. It is just too easy to end up creating fictional versions of unconfortable people and other aspects of reality and convincing ourselves that they are faithful enough to the real thing. While the spurring factor may be a very sincere and genuine disconfort, the end result is far too often an effective weaponization of that disconfort into some form of "need" for confrontation of some form, often joined with some degree of expectation of lasting removal of the dissenting elements.
Worse still, the occurrence of aggressive response to disconfort tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy and to cause comparable yet opposite reaction. It is just not nearly as easy to have genuine good will and cooperation with someone who has lost the cool than with someone who has not.
Everyone longs for comfort and acceptance. But perhaps paradoxically, to care for those we have to dare to transcend the need for them.
There is a saying attributed to Oprah:
"Don't back down just to keep the peace. Standing up for your belief builds self-confidence and self-esteem."
I happen to agree, but there are of course situations when one shold back down, consider whether he or she has enough self-confidence already, and/or choose something else over building self-esteem. A balance should be pursued, and to decide which it should be can be a considerable challenge in and of itself.
It can be difficult, even hazardous, to make concessions for other people. There are comfort and tranquility in being in environments that do not see fit to pay attention to alternate viewpoints. It is entirely conceivable that one may end up reliant on those environments to the point of being literally sick, oblivious or utterly confused when exposed to even the general lines of other perspectives when the time comes to leave the echo chamber. Worse still, the person may well fail to realize how out of touch he or she is exactly.
Which is precisely why leave the chamber we all should, often and sincerely. There are bitter findings to be attained on the outside, but turning our backs to them solves nothing. Besides, many of those findings are liberating and very gratifying indeed once we learn to deal with them.
What can be somewhat less obvious is that over-reliance on predictable, safe environments imposes a toll on those from the outside as well. People who are lacking in familiarity with a wider range of environments will often develop a genuine difficulty to both understand other people and to make themselves truly understood.
That is never a good thing, although it can be tempting in certain circunstances. It is just too easy to end up creating fictional versions of unconfortable people and other aspects of reality and convincing ourselves that they are faithful enough to the real thing. While the spurring factor may be a very sincere and genuine disconfort, the end result is far too often an effective weaponization of that disconfort into some form of "need" for confrontation of some form, often joined with some degree of expectation of lasting removal of the dissenting elements.
Worse still, the occurrence of aggressive response to disconfort tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy and to cause comparable yet opposite reaction. It is just not nearly as easy to have genuine good will and cooperation with someone who has lost the cool than with someone who has not.
Everyone longs for comfort and acceptance. But perhaps paradoxically, to care for those we have to dare to transcend the need for them.
