How do you know what you know? Although an important question, few people give it a great deal of thought. You often behave based on your knowledge. Your preference for just about everything is based on your knowledge.
How do we acquire knowledge? We know much of what we know from formal education as well as from modeling the behaviors of others. We learn from our failures and from our successes as well as the successes and failures of others. At times we learn from serendipitous events. What are the other ways in which we acquire knowledge?
As we mature, we learn that some of what we once believed to be true actually was not. We once may have believed that there was a Santa Claus. As we have read books about historical events, we have often discovered that our former knowledge was incorrect. Eventually we come to realize that knowledge and truth do not necessarily coincide. A great deal of what we thought we knew was actually inaccurate. As we frequently learn at the movies and theme parks, our senses can be fooled by technology.
I challenge you to begin to think about why it is important to know how you know what you know. What are the sabotages of knowing and believing false information? Albert Schweitzer said, "Every man has to seek in his own way to make his own self more noble and to realize his own true worth."
I suggest spending some time thinking about the concept of different realities. Consider the relationship between your realities and your knowledge. The reality of such topics as criminal justice or public education could be perceived differently depending upon an individual's culture, race, socioeconomic class, religion and/or any number of other factors.
Choices
We did not have any choices regarding our birth. We could not select anything about our family of origin – their ethnicity, race, or socio/economic status. We could not control where we were born. As we mature, we are often able to change our lives despite our birth circumstances. These changes can be in any direction and are not necessarily for the best. Birth circumstances can have a profound impact on our lives.
If we consider everything that shapes our lives, we realize that we fall on different rungs of many ladders. To name a few, there are the ladders of education, economics, and health status. These positions do not necessarily correlate. For example, one may have a Ph.D., make a small income and have poor health. Conversely, one can be a high school graduate, have great wealth, and be in excellent health.
Our birth circumstances and the position we hold on the many life ladders has much to do with what we know and how we know it. A simple, but profound statement is “you know what you know." Each time that we are disturbed by someone’s decisions, thoughts, or behaviors, we have the option of realizing all that shaped this person. Because we can seldom control what others’ know, we can best control the acquisition of our own knowledge. This is the primary point of this section.
Our opinions filter and shape the way we process information as well as what we perceive as reality. People have “different realities”. I invite you to clearly define your reality on a topic and then to contrast it with an individual or group with a different reality on the same topic. Without having to necessarily agree with the other reality, set the goal to explore another reality other than your own. If you have difficulty doing this, I suggest the topic of justice. Rent a movie and study it for its alternative reality. I suggest a few Academy Award winners: Crash or Traffic. If you enjoy old classic movies, view Twelve Angry Men. Exploration of these movies and the realities that they present will be thought provoking as you put yourself into the roles of various characters.
There are many realities to explore other than justice. Religion offers a plethora of possibilities. For example, Christians could read Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible through Jewish Eyes by John Shelby Spong or Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman. More specifically, Catholics could read Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews by James Carroll. These books allow one to view information through a different perspective and perhaps understand how belief systems are built.
Part of the class that I co-teach, Culturally Competent Social Work Practice, focuses on working with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and questioning) youth. Take a look at the video links at the bottom of this page and then put yourself into the role of one of the youths in the video. Experience a different reality.
If you are not a reader, but watch educational material in any format, take yourself out of your "being entertained or being judgmental" mode and into putting yourself in the place of a guest or participating audience member. Knowing what you know about this person, view life from his or her perspective. Use this process as a growth experience. The motion picture industry has progressed in helping viewers to see alternative realities within the context of motion pictures. For example, Lords of War and Syriana both offer you views into very competing realities.
The key factor here is not to simply learn about a different reality, but to mentally put yourself in another reality as much as possible. For this to occur, you may need to devote some time for this purpose. An individual or group with a very different reality can alter your world and the world of those you love. Your thoughts of right and wrong, good and bad, fair and unfair mean very little when this occurs. It is the understanding of different realities and of their possible merger that will make a difference.
I subscribe to the idea that we should make a point to have conversations with those with whom we do not agree. Most people develop their values based on their life story. Once you know a person's life story, you understand their values and the accompanying positions on a number of issues. Consequently, we are much less likely to demonize others for their stance on such issues as politics and religion once we really know a person's story.
If you are currently in a leadership role or believe that you will ever be in such a role, you will benefit from knowing about the concept and the process of alternative realities. This is much more than a cognitive process. Leaders should not be simplistic and dogmatic about such topics as the many realities of today’s complex and profoundly difficult world. Perhaps egocentric and ethnocentric thinking make life seem more orderly and predictable, but this is perhaps our biggest illusion.
|
