Assuming The Unknown (I)

Assuming The Unknown (I) - Before pointing at others, I might want to take a closer look at myself with special reference to that. After all, a character flaw like jumping the gun all too clearly suggests that I am in fact not an iota better than anyone else. - From my husband I once learnt the somewhat coarse expression of assumption being the mother of all screw- ups. Sure enough, it would take me quite a while to not just let this sink in, or should I say, settle in my consciousness but also to apply it to myself in the end. The reason for my reluctance being, this trait proved to be just another one of my personal blind spots. Remember, those are grey areas which stay well- hidden to our awareness because we simply refuse to accept them as parts of ourselves. Instead, we preferably negate them and fall prey to ranting and raving whenever facing them so clearly put on display primarily through the mirroring of the ones closest to us. What we deny or oppose to in them is what we are actually called upon viewing, reconciling with and, last but not least, incorporating as qualities within our own selves. - Whatever, to a variable extent, we are all inescapably inclined to virtually relying on our very individual assumptions. We normally take both people and their stories alike at face value and abruptly come up with all kinds of scenarios based on that which frequently miss reality entirely. In this particular context, I keep reading that such behavior automatically relates to a low IQ. Hmm, you see, to me, this scientific finding just states another fitting example of assumption overshooting the mark altogether. This certainly begs the question why humans act and react in such a premature fashion for the most part? I believe this all dates way back to prehistoric times when more or less in permanent fight- or- flight mode, we just did not have much of a choice but actually needed to promptly evaluate certain situations for the sake of survival. Therefore, I would like to label this as instinctive rather than intellectual behavior which is inherent in each and everyone of us due to evolution. Agreed, if only we consciously took a few more seconds to first reconsider and then adjust our initial take on someone or something, we might ultimately arrive at an altered view, but then, how do you go about taking the instinctive part out of the equation? Admittedly, this would be a fairly impossible undertaking, right? - Not seldom, assumption pairs up with generalization as if the former were not yet enough acting all by itself. For instance, we see or hear about a Muslim these days. As a dire consequence of having been incited and so negatively conditioned by the mass media as far as judging Muslims overall, we will in all likelihood think of basically any Muslim as being a radical, underdeveloped or rather regressed religious fanatic. Of course, rather needless to say that such is far from the actual truth. In fact, once all the ideological differences are set aside, most of those folks turn out to be just as peace- loving and progressive as we are. - Racists usually stress the superiority of whites over any other race. What a bunch of crap! I principally look at everyone the same way and don't make any difference founded on creed or skin color. Surely, after several years of continuous racial strain here, I would be lying if I claimed that that had not rubbed off on me at all. Sadly, I jump to conclusions especially with Welfare recipients of whom most are black, as we all know. Regardless of the fact that I am not a racist, I find that I definitely need to keep myself in check to avoid that trap of just falsely assuming the unknown all over again. - To be continued.