The Doors of Perception

Cool swirly thing

Knowing is one of the fundamentals of human behavior. We are able to receive various pieces of information and formulate ideas, opinions and hypotheses. The basic definition of knowing is “the generally assumed definition of something, understanding that this definition is either proven or assumed on a logical basis. Perception, on the other hand, is using your knowledge of the world, your experiences and yourself (previous knowledge) to formulate an individual opinion or assumption. A perception is basically to see in a certain manner or light. Perception is based upon an individual rather than the majority, but as I will address later, different environments have significant impact on people’s perceptions.

To hide yourself from knowing, you must drown yourself in perception. For example, if you vehemently believe that your girlfriend is not chubby, but the general population understands the definition of chubby and assumes that definition with your girlfriend, they make knowledge the equivalent of perception. The general population sees your girlfriend, knows the definition of chubby, and assumes the perspective that she is indeed chubby. By being innocent, or by differing with the definition of the word “chubby,” you may still believe she is skinny (or just not chubby). Another perspective is if you believe your girlfriend is beautiful no matter what other people call her.

Ignorance in is an enormous world problem. Conflicting beliefs and perspectives combined with ignorance creates war. If the children of today were brought up in homes free from family prejudices and taught in places without bias, teaching every world issue from all countries’ viewpoints, our generation might be able to communicate and solve our problems better than the last generation.

If a child is given a cookie, he may believe that cookie is the best cookie in the world. This may be due to the fact that he may never have had another cookie so good, or that he lacked experience in the cookie department. This is not to say the child is wrong in perceiving that that cookie is the best one in the world, he is simply innocent of knowing that there may be better cookies out there. Either way, the child’s perception of the amazing cookie would be much different, from say, a 40-year-old adult who has gone to forty different countries on a cookie tasting tour. The adult might perceive the cookie as mediocre in comparison to others. The child does not know for sure weather that cookie is the best, but he knows that that cookie is the best he has ever had. He perceives that his cookie is the best in the world, but he does not know for sure. You can have a perception without knowing.

People may perceive things in a certain manner but at the same time understand that their perceptions are not accepted or may not agree with what the general population perceives a certain thing as.

Perceptions are often universal in different cultures. Not everyone perceives things the same way, because of our different experiences and knowledge. Some cultures may shun nudity because they perceive it as vulgar and too openly sexual for their comfort. The people that live in this type of culture are less likely to become nudists, than say Americans, who generally believe that we should be able to do what we please (obviously without any detrimental effects upon others). Many countries around the world believe that Americans are rude, shameless and lazy. They have this perception (probably) because of obnoxious tourists. Us Americans, on the other hand, are exposed to this kind of behavior daily. We perceive our culture as normal, whereas another country would perceive America as very strange, and consequently rude, shameless and lazy. American tourists need to realize the moral boundaries of the country they visit, because we portray a very vulgar image of ourselves in other countries by not respecting their culture. When I went to Paris last year, you could clearly tell Americans from natives. Some young American women wore shorts that were ridiculously short, and the French, believing this to be a very risqué part of the body to expose, consequently believe the Americans to overexpose themselves. I’m not trying to say that the girls’ shorts were acceptable even here, but skimpy clothing is relatively normal in our culture these days. The French perspective on American culture, when exposed to American tourists, turns negatively when they see reflections of our culture out of context. It’s all perspective, man.

People everywhere have customs, traditions, standards and morals, which they live their lives by. Different lifestyles, experiences and environments directly affect one’s perspectives on other cultures and peoples’ behaviors.

Everyone needs to understand that each person has his or her own experiences. Each person knows things a little bit differently from the next person, and each may know different things. People are exposed to different cultures, lifestyles, knowledge, personalities, and millions of other things that affect who we are. Each person is entitled to his or her own perception of the world. If Mike has a specific perception on a certain subject, and Hunter understands many or all of the perceptions people have about that specific subject, Hunter is superior to Mike.

You must keep in mind though, that most (well all…) people will never be able to fully understand all viewpoints on everything. Another person may advance you in a certain department, but they are sure to be less qualified in another department. So therefore, a single person may not necessarily be superior over another.

On the other hand, if say, Jess lacks a general understanding of most differing viewpoints from hers, and a Josh views most subjects in different perspectives, Josh would be superior to Jess.

For example, Fred Phelps. He is an anti-homosexual advocate who has one opinion, “God Hates Fags.” In telephone conversation with a news reporter, Phelps completely denied the existence of a viewpoint other than his. The news reporter asked him questions regarding the opposite side of Phelps’s perspective, and Phelps refused to even consider that his opinion was even slightly mistaken or wrong. One must consider where Phelps came from, what kind of family he had and what his parents taught him (and maybe even what they were teaching him in Sunday School). By understanding where his perspective comes from, we might be able to produce the slightest level of understanding (but by no means agreement) on his side. Fred on the other hand, does not even attempt to see any opposite perspectives. This ignorance makes him much less superior than another who tries to understand all perspectives on the subject.