Reflections on challenging our opinions and welcoming diverse views
There is an old parable about a group of blind people meeting an elephant for the first time. None of them had ever heard about elephants so they did not know what to expect. To help them understand what an elephant is, they are all positioned around the elephant and asked to describe it. None of them can see the elephant so they have to use their hands to feel the part of the body that they are closest to.
The first person feels the tusk and describes how long and curved it is. He also notes how smooth the tusk is. The second person touches one of the elephant’s ears and describes how wide and flat it is. The third person feels the elephant’s skin and describes how leathery and rough it is. The fourth person touches one of the elephant’s legs and describes it as long and thick like a pillar. The fifth person touches the elephant’s trunk and comments about its thick, cylindrical nature and length. The last person touches the elephant’s tail and notes how hairy and long it is.
Each person experiences just one part of the elephant without touching or feeling any other part. All six people then come together to share their experiences. As the first person describes the tusk, the others begin to counter him, stating that was not the experience they had. Each person struggles to convince the others that their experience of the elephant is the most genuine description of the elephant. It does not occur to them that they are each describing just one aspect of the elephant. They do not realise that other people can have experienced the elephant differently.
Each person stands resolute in their conviction that their description of the elephant aptly provides a true picture of what the animal is like. As far as each person is concerned, his/her “truth” is the only valid one and anything anyone else says is false or incorrect.
What would have happened if each person had been patient enough to hear the others out? They would have first of all started by listening to one another without any intention of interrupting them. Then they may shortly have realised that most of them felt the same type of texture which would have been an indication of some similarity in their experiences. They would then have ended up realising that they were all standing at different sides of the elephant and thus, they experienced it in different ways.
At the end of the day, they would each realise that even though they had experienced different parts of the elephant, their experiences were individually valid based on the information they had been exposed to. Most importantly, they would understand that all their experiences were summed up to describe different aspects of the elephant. They were each correct in their descriptions but they needed each other’s descriptions to truly describe the elephant. By the time they repeat their descriptions, they would each have gained greater clarity about what the elephant looked like.
Many of us are like the blind people feeling and touching different parts of the elephant. We do not realise or we choose not to consider, that we have only a limited experience with the position that we hold. We are only content on emphasising how our experience, albeit limited even if we do not know or admit it, is the real deal and nothing else. As far as we are concerned, our experience is superior to any other person’s experience.
I notice this a lot nowadays when people have discussions. Most often, each person is pushing his/her agenda without considering the other person’s position. Very often, our minds are made up and we are unwilling to even put our knowledge to the test by considering another person’s opinion. One would assume that doing this would either help us arrive at a position of new knowledge or help us further strengthen our position from a greater level of awareness.
People often say: “own your truth” and I will admit that I am still unsure about what that phrase means. When people say: “This is my truth”, my understanding is that they have chosen to believe and understand the point of view they have presented. That this represents their position on whatever matter it is that they are defending. This is fine but why do many people resist testing the position they hold by not accommodating different views? Does that mean that the truth one believes can never change? How are we even sure that our version of the truth is the actual truth?
I have realised that we are more open to people who appear to consider our perspective, even if they do not accept it, than those who immediately declare our opinions as unfounded. We naturally move towards people who are more open-minded and welcoming of diverse opinions, and who are not afraid of having their information checked and debated. And when people come to us without putting on an “all-knowing” toga, we are more open to sharing our views with them, including the real basis for those views.
Being open-minded is hard for many people because it requires us to challenge what we have accepted as true. I can just imagine how the people who considered the earth as being flat felt when studies proved that the earth was indeed not flat. I wonder how that information was presented to these people at that time. Some people still hold the same opinion today though, despite the various scientific evidence that has been presented to disprove it.
We must constantly test our pre-existing knowledge. Whatever we know now, is based on the information and experiences that we have been exposed to. This is also closely related to the people closest to us, who influence our thinking, knowingly or unknowingly. Also, we very often have deeper, unexplainable reasons for some of the positions we hold and when we sense that these opinions are being challenged, we find it easier to stay steadfast in our position.
Our approach to life should be to welcome disparate viewpoints and test them against the knowledge that we have. Maintaining an attitude that allows our beliefs to be challenged could also lead to greater enlightenment. We should be like filters that receive things whilst permitting only the required content to sift through after going through the filtration process. We need to learn to welcome diverse opinions whilst analysing for fact and truth. This is the way I see things today.