Dr Doran
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The Dame said:As best we can given the day, our mood, our circumstances, their mood, their circumstances ... proximity helps us avoid some misjudgments but certainly not all. We're subjective beings and how we perceive others and ourselves is also subjective and influenced by myriad variables. The sin is not in bringing our own perception to the table, but in believing that perception can ever be anything but subjective. Wherever possible we have to make allowances for that. I'm not perfect - my perception of some members' answers in a thread yesterday was that they were being snotty. Their perception was that they were being honest. So whose perception defines reality?
Perhaps, but that premise rests on the assumption that we ever reveal our 'true selves' either in person or via other means. I think it could be argued, e.g., that what we wear and the things we buy can be as much mask as window into who we are. I'm not sure I even understand why it's necessary for us to know another person's true self - half of us don't know our own true selves. And again, perception cannot be excised. Perception is reality in most cases.
Because we're human. Because Eve sought knowledge and ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and talked Adam into taking a bite, too. Whether a thing can be figured out or not shouldn't keep us from trying. The journey, not the destination, KWIM?
My only problem with this is that if someone takes this too much to heart, he can excuse himself from trying to be as objective as possible by saying, "well, that's MY perception." Also, confusing perception with reality: I don't think that's right either. We must constantly try to detangle them to see, as clearly as possible, what is actually going on. We must try to rise above our prejudices, biases, and ideologies. This is what (hopefully) happens in a courtroom with all the cross-examining. Our society needs it. Any society does.