Let Truth Be Our Influence

When I was growing up I remember that my mother specifically taught me to say “please” and “thank you” anytime I asked for or received something. As I grew older I left behind phrases like “gimme,” “mine,” and “stop it!” In there places I would say, “May I please have…” or “Please don’t do that again… Thank you.” All around us are influences that affect us for better or for worse. We often go through life inconsistently being told what to do and what not to do with modified instructions depending on our ages, personalities, cultures, and family backgrounds. We constantly make perceptions and label each other according to what we see and we judge according to how we’ve been influenced throughout our lives. Max Lucado illustrated this point in his book You Are Special. In his fictional parable, a wooden puppet visits the woodcarver who made him, who is a source of truth. The maker tells his creation, “I don’t care what the [others] think… You shouldn’t either. What they think doesn’t matter.” Although what others see and think about us greatly influences who we are, we can learn to empower each other through pure knowledge, which is truth.
Steven Johnson gives a great example of how a large number of Londoners are influenced by a single misleading theory. In his book, The Ghost Map, he shows how even with evidence against miasma staring them in the face, the board of health in London continued to believe in the theory of communication of cholera through the air; “For Benjamin Hall’s committee, the confirmation bias toward miasma was so strong that it literally blinded them to the patterns that Snow and Whitehead perceived so clearly… the committee was so conceptually mired in the prevailing model that it turned the waterborne theory’s experimentum crucis into yet another testament to the power of miasma.” There are those who would like to think that they have complete control over themselves and the consequences of their actions, but how could Londoners in the early 1800s have possibly done this? A lack of knowledge compliments a lack of power over our circumstances. Educated men gave citizens false information and by doing so they drained the people who believed them of power over themselves.
Have you ever heard the saying, “I am what I think you think I am?” Is it true? This question comes from the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, which is true when we act according to the judgments or expectations others hold us to. For example; let’s say that my mom calls me fat. My brothers and sisters call me fat and they all say that I will always be fat. Let’s say also that everyone in my family is known for their athletic ability and super skinniness. If this is what I hear everyday until I move away or die then how much can it mold who I will become? It may not be that what is said about me is true but rather that I believe it to be true. I therefore create a psychological roadblock saying, “I’m too fat. I may as well forget about my weight because I can’t change that. I’m hungry for a bowl of ice cream.” In an essence I have been labeled and programmed as something I am not. My self-esteem drops and my confidence dwindles. In reality, we are what we are and we’re not what everybody says we are! But no matter how much we try to break free of stereotypes, generalizations, and judgments, our surroundings are still woven into us as intricate threads of our overall design.
One way to recognize the reality of pretense around us is by identifying inconsistencies in systems. In his essay, “Looking at Women,” Scott Russell Sanders makes this recognition, “Other forces contend in us as well: the voices of books and religions, the images of art and film and advertising, the entire chorus of culture. Norman’s telling me to relish the sight of females and his mother’s telling me to keep my eyes to myself are only two of the many voices quarreling in my head.” Presented with an inconsistency, Sanders is impelled to discover for himself the truth behind the story. With a friend telling him how to act on one side and his mother on the other, what is he to do? Which one is right? Are they both right? Or are they wrong altogether? The idea of women as images of entertainment you may see in downtown Amsterdam is completely different from the veils that are seen on many Muslim women. Does the answer to Sanders dilemma above lie in relativism of culture, family, or popular opinion?
Through all the bad, or not so good, progress can still be seen. Thomas Edison said, “There's a way to do it better - find it… I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” All paths eventually come together and agree on the same principles that may not have been commonly accepted in the beginning. Where human flight was once considered impossible by many there now exists the knowledge of space travel. One thing always leads to another. The theory of miasma in London was considered a possibility before it was vetoed by John Snow and others. At the beginning of all great discoveries and successes lie mistakes and failures. Once again, by failing our way to success we are still making progress. We can choose how to respond to the examples of others. The 16th century philosopher William James declared, “The greatest discovery… is that we can change our circumstances by changing our attitudes of mind.” As a chick within its shell must break forth from the confines of his limited view to a vast expansion of knowledge, so must we find within ourselves the greater power to burst out of the barrage of false ideas and inconsistencies around us. From here, the right kind of attitude promotes the discovery of pure knowledge.
By placing knowledge on a scale we can compare what we know now to what we knew as a newborn infant. It wasn’t very much, was it? So, if we’ve learned so much since infancy and we can look back 5 years and see how much we’ve grown since then, it’s only logical to acknowledge how little we are truly able to learn in this life. Further, if knowledge gives us power over ourselves we can thus conclude that we are born powerless and then through time and experience and trial we learn to think for ourselves and govern our every thought, feeling, word, and action. After the initial capacity to gain knowledge for ourselves, we learn how to help others. In doing all that lies within our power to feel good about what we are, we find that we are actually very similar to everyone else who lives on this tiny planet. We are indeed all connected to each other and our knowledge expands together.
In the case of the London cholera epidemic of 1854, it took courage of only a few individuals to break through the egg shell of miasma . A few with attitudes of success. They took the necessary steps to learn for themselves and in that way, gave back to the community the power which appeared to have been taken away by an invisible disease. We too can empower those around us by acknowledging our errors and learning to be what we feel we should be without the air of pretense poisoning our perceptions. Let truth be our influence.

Here's Looking Forward!

I've never done anything like this before, but I think I'll enjoy it. It's time to get to work!