“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble; it’s what you know for sure that ain’t so.” — Mark Twain
When most people talk about politics or some other issue that makes them emotional, they tend to think that they are always right. Let me ask you a question: have you ever met anyone who was always right about any issue? Chances are the answer is “no” which means that there are a whole lot of people in this world who are saying things that aren’t true.
This is to be expected because the great majority of people are guilty of taking sides without thinking about them beforehand. If you’ve ever met someone who strongly supports a sports team solely because of geographic location or because their friends and family supports that team, you know what I’m talking about.
And because they’re not thinking objectively, they have the tendency to focus on only the positive perceptions of their beliefs and only the negative perceptions of the beliefs they’re opposing. And not surprisingly, they ignore everything negative about their beliefs and everything positive about opposing beliefs.
Gain a better understanding of the people you disagree with
In order to get along with diverse groups of people who you don’t always agree with, you need the ability to view things from their perspectives. Think about some of the colleagues in your life and imagine what life must be like from their point of view. Think about how they were raised and the experiences they must have gone through before meeting you.
Even though they may have beliefs that differ from your own sometimes, they have those beliefs for a reason. If you find out why they have those beliefs and analyze them objectively and intelligently, you’ll be less likely to experience negative emotions around them.
Everyone plays a part in this world
The world isn’t always as it seems. With the limited time and experiences that we’re capable of having, we can’t view things from all angles and always have definite answers. Seldom is anything in the world always good or always bad. There are always gray areas in the middle that are usually more truthful than either side.
“Pure reason avoids extremes, and requires one to be wise in moderation.” — Moliere
The world wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if everyone had the same beliefs. Civilization would be behind by at least a thousand years if everyone viewed the world from the same perspectives. We need people who view the world differently because they’ll think of innovations that we cannot.
It’s been said that the average person has between 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day and most of them remain unchanged from one day to the next. But when you keep your mind receptive to ideas different from your own, you give yourself an opportunity to learn what you never thought could be true.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
This is the first time that I have saw your website…I like the general idea behind it. I only recently really started focusing on inspiration/motivation/goals, etc. For a while I’ve been feeling a desire to improve my life and reading these websites and blogging about it has really been a joy.
I look forward to your future posts!
Ryan Krueger´s last blog ..10 Things That Inspire Me
This is my first visit to your blog. Great post! Your quote by Mark Twain at the top is perfect for it! I think you are so wise to advise moderation in our thinking and to always understand where a person we are working with (or debating) is coming from. Everyone has a story and a whole different belief system. Thanks again!
Jodi at Joy Discovered´s last blog ..The Truth Will Set You Free
@Ryan – Thanks, Ryan. I read some of your writing and you seem like a good-hearted and genuine person. I consider it an honor that you had good things to say about it.
@Jodi – Thanks for the reply, Ryan. Those are excellent points you elaborated on. It takes wisdom to think outside of ourselves and view things from other peoples’ points of view. I look forward to reading more from you.
I enjoyed and agree with your post. I learned a long time ago that I do not have to become involved in disputes with people who hold a different ideology. If all else fails, they can go to their ‘corner’ and I can go to mine.
Good point, Bakari. It’s silly to argue with someone when we know full well we’ll never persuade them. Intelligent discourse is fine but arguing is just a waste of time.
The word Babel came from the mystical story .. that all humans had the same thoughts in reaching God .. to break their unity God created different view points thus started the argument .. which is called a Babel ..
Mystical story .. but so true … in true life … Its hard to meet people with same views…… thus we need to understand that and accept them too …
Good point, Sudeep. It is unrealistic to expect people to agree with us 100% of the time. I find it amazing that some people actually have that expectation. Thanks for the insightful story.
Another reason to respect other people’s beliefs is that sometimes they may be right and you may be wrong. eg. Galileo was totally ridiculed when he first proposed the idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
Julian´s last blog ..You Are The Average Of The 5 People You Spend The Most Time With
You’re right, Julian. I noticed that to this day people still ridicule others even when there’s tons of evidence proving those people being ridiculed to be right.
Dealing with opposite belief systems out of our own can certainly be difficult… however dating an Islamic girl really opened my eyes to just what exactly other religions and thoughts have to offer. I’m agnostic myself and I suspect I always will be, but it was amazing to realize just how much of that culture I was ignorant of.
In a lot of ways, we almost cherish the same values, but rather we view them from different angles. Two sides of the same coin so to speak, and so I can better appreciate having somebody to relate issues with.
As you said, everyone plays a part, and ostracizing others because of a different belief is silly; only when we can truly understand all sides to an issue can we be judgmental on where we stand.
Travis´s last blog ..Mind Stimulation 2
That’s true, Travis. I noticed that most people who criticize someone for having a belief don’t know much about the belief they’re criticizing the person for. If anything, ignorance fuels most of the hatred I’ve seen from others more than anything else.