In Search Of A Bumper Sticker Reality

It is becoming apparent to me that one of the issues facing us is our rush to reach conclusions. To get to that point, we tend to simplify complex issues. We like slogans, memes, particularly anything that can fit on a bumper sticker. In that “hurried-ness” we tend to miss some things.

Finally and gratefully, I have finished re-reading Scott Peck’s book, The People Of The Lie. (I mentioned earlier that it is a hard read, not because of its density but because of the troubling information it conveys.) One of the points that Peck makes is that too often we are hindered by two things: our laziness and our narcissism. A too easy summary of that diagnosis is that we are satisfied with what we know and refuse to make the effort to find out what we still need to learn. 

One of the results of this tendency is the binary thinking that has infested not only our politics, but our relationships. We have too easily settled into hardened positions. Moreover, we have chosen to simplify those stances so that we can parrot our responses to anyone who disagrees with us.

The problem is that almost all questions are much more complex than those categories and our chosen responses allow us to take into account. There are more causes and more people involved than we want to imagine, and thus, we tend not to think through all the consequences. We opt for that path because to choose otherwise would involve several things of which we are not particularly fond. 

First, it would involve some uncertainty. It is much more comfortable to be absolutely certain, even if what we are certain about is wrong or at least incomplete. The saying I have quoted before comes to mind: “ I may not be right, but I am never in doubt.”

Second, it would require effort. We might be required to think things through more thoroughly. We might even have to take into account that at least part of someone else’s position, although contrary to ours, might have some merit. It is just easier to remain where we are attitudinally.

Third, we might have to admit that we are wrong, or at the very least that we don’t know everything about the issue before us. That is a painful awareness given our hope that we are, if not all knowing, at least smarter than those people who might offer an opinion counter to ours.

Peck describes it this way: “We are our attitudes. If someone criticizes an attitude of mine, I feel he or she is criticizing me. If one of my opinions is proved wrong, then I have been wrong. My self-image of perfection has been shattered. Individuals and nations cling to obsolete and outworn ideas not simply because it requires work to change them but also because, in their narcissism, they cannot imagine that their ideas and views could be wrong. They believe themselves to be right.”

And so we find ourselves where we are. We have a sense that positions are over-simplified, but at least we have a sense of certainty, and the vehemence with which we defend that certainty indicates just how deeply seated and important that certainty is to us.