There are times I feel crazy. Gerald Goodman, PhD, an emeritus professor of psychology at UCLA says. “Believing that you are going crazy is a good clue that you are sane." But I am referring to "crazy" in a somewhat different sense.
Crazy is naturally construed in terms of illness - actual psychosis and a medical condition such as bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia. That is not the crazy I feel. Although, I have experienced a couple panic attacks in my life which gave me pause to wonder and seek advice. What I mean by crazy in the context of this blog post does, nonetheless, have to do with the perception of reality.
People, I find, tend to have a preference for self-supporting or reinforcing their bias. They tend to hang out with people who share a similar world view and follow media and news sources which support their own narrative. Doing so reassures us that our perception of reality is accurate and reassures us that we are right - that we are not crazy.
It stands to reason that we like people who are like us. It is comforting to believe we see clearly and that we are right, So we tend to stay in circles of thought which fit for us and where we fit in. That way we avoid the emotional tension and stressful disonnance that comes from disagreements.
By the same token, there is a difference with being open and willing to engage with people who have very different views than we do, and looking for a fight. Some folks enjoy confrontation. They enjoy the challenge and want to take up the fight. This can be a good thing, especially when it comes to worthwhile cause and related social activism, such as the fight against hunger or hate crimes. But even in situations such as these there can be useful observations to be found and solutions to be gained from the willingness to see other views on the causes.
An example may be helpful for what I am trying to explain. So here is a brief try. Suppose two people agree that poverty which leads to hunger is a bad thing. Those same two people can disagree on a particular solution, such as whether the answer is for the Federal Government to raise the national minimum wage. In such a situation, the person for the increase may perceive the person against the increase to be an evil person who is unwilling to address the problem of hunger. When in reality the person opposed to the national increase simply has different views on the solution.
Back to where I am going with this blog entry ...
When we see things differently, it is enough to make one feel crazy. In other words to feel like our sense of reality is "out of touch." But there are different realities.
Depending on perspective - how two people can view the same paradigm can differ 180 degrees. And a paradigm can be extremely nuanced, so there are multiple levels and possible interpretations. Unfortunately, it seems that today, especially with recent politics, that the divide is greater than I can personally recall. (My general awareness of the greater world I was living in began after the Vietnam War was coming to a close. I suspect the divisions were even greater during that period.)
There is something positive about feeling crazy. And there is something constructive to challenging ourselves to acknowledge and consider views very different from our own.
When we don't leave ourselves open to other possibilities our ability to find common ground between one another is impeded. And we may miss opportunities for solutions. Almost surely we forgo the potential for teamwork and the likelihood is that people work at cross purposes with frustratingly few benefits.
Therein lies an essential and deep problem with society today. The issues today with debt, governments role, foreign relations, racism, healthcare, environment, etc. are extremely troubling. I perceive everyone of these problems to be man made and thus solvable. But they are so large that they will ONLY be overcome if we work together.
The difference between Liberal and Conservative views are stagering. People's minds are made up. We assure ourselves that we are not crazy by convincing ourselves that our perception is correct and the others are wrong, and that there is no other possible way to justify the situation, and that only either a Democratic or Republican approach to problems is right.
Prejudices are made of this. Anger and fear come from this. Hate grows out of this. Obstructionism is the result of this. But finding common ground and mutually workable solutions and teamwork is NOT what comes from it! And that is why our congress and our country and even friends and family members find themselves at odds.
There are times I feel crazy. But I view that as a positive sign that I need to dig deeper to find a better understanding and means to communicate with the other side. And when I have the opportunity, with someone who is open to me, to try to offer another perspective, in the spirit of mutual respect and with a loving spirit.
The very sad and distressing side to this is that there is often a very unfriendly and even hostile reaction to anyone whose views are different. This is not to say that we should tolerate acts of hate!!! But what I do find personally difficult is how harsh people can judge others who see circumstances in the world and have a different interpretation. In an ironic twist, maybe the world would not be as crazy and scary as it is if we each felt a bit crazy and tried to seek a better understanding with greater openess.