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Conceptual Traps

In the last lesson, we covered how the indefinite definitions of words prevent them from being used with the same logical precision as numbers are used in mathematics. I mentioned too that words can trap you into thinking in certain ways. That's what this lesson will cover. But first we will see how even pre-verbal concepts can limit our thinking and get in the way of seeing reality clearly. To demonstrate this, you can either do the following experiment or just take my word for the result.

Find a photo of yourself. If you need to use a photo of someone else, it is best if it's a person you know well. Now get a pencil and blank piece of paper, and referring to the photo, draw the face you see there. Then, starting with a new sheet of paper, turn the photo upside down and carefully draw what you see in it. If you try this technique, you'll be surprised how much more accurate that second drawing is.

Why does this work? Because turning the photo upside down interrupts your normal interpretation of the face, and leaves you with nothing to do but draw the lines and shadows the way they are. Your own concepts of what a face looks like, and of what that face looks like, get in the way of seeing it as it is. A similar thing happens when a child first looks at and draws a dog. The legs furthest away appear shorter due to the distance, but his mind already has an idea about the legs being the same length, so he draws them all equally long.

The Meditation Example

Here is simple meditation exercise that can show how reality is distorted by your concepts. Find a quiet, pretty place, like a pond, or an isolated corner of a park. Stand there and look at the scenery for a minute. Close your eyes, let the tension drain from your muscles, and take several deep breaths through your nose. Then let your breathing fall into a comfortable rhythm.

Now pay attention only to your breathing, to the air passing in and out of your nose. Your mind will wander, but just bring attention back to your breath each time. It gets easier the more you do this. In five or fifteen minutes, when your mind has quieted, open your eyes.

Take a look around without words going through your mind. Although the same, things will normally look different. Colors may seem more vibrant. You probably won't be able to easily describe or explain the experience, but you are basically seeing with "new" eyes, because your mind is quieter. Normally, your thoughts affect how you see things.

Words

You can see how even pre-verbal concepts get in the way of clearly seeing what is there in front of us. It is perhaps even more evident when it comes to our use of words. In fact, using words like "love," "mine," "freedom," or "enemy" can be almost like putting various glasses on that color the world differently.

Words come with a with a prepackaged meaning and even predetermined state of mind, so besides communicating something, they also can stop or limit thinking. For example, it is much easier to kill an "enemy" than a "nice young person who teaches a third grade art class and was drafted into the army." Thinking about the latter would make a soldier's job difficult, but the label "enemy" helps stop such thoughts. Similarly, calling a murderer a "monster" makes it easier to execute him.

Consider for a moment what happens if people think of "freedom" as their country being independent from other countries. With such a concept, they'll let their own governments take away almost everything that used to be considered freedom, as long as they do it to keep "their" "country" "free" from the "attacks" of "enemies." You can see why politicians and governments try so hard to control language.

Now, to get out of such intellectual "traps," and to think more clearly, we can start by being aware of the effect that words have on us. In some cases we can choose to observe things without the use of words for a while. Then we can choose to use different words to see things differently. Lets use a less political example to demonstrate this.

Suppose Tom, an entrepreneur, wants to build some kind of tourist hotel. The word "hotel" of course, tends to limit his thinking to things that have used that label, and related businesses. He decides to redefine the problem, meaning he chooses different words. He tries "place to sleep when traveling," and "shelter." The latter makes him think of his son's fort, built up in a tree in the backyard.

Tree houses instead of hotel rooms, he decides, would be a unique experience for travelers. He finds a property with large trees and creates the "Tom's Tree House Rentals." It quickly becomes successful. (By the way, this has been done in both Greece and Mexico.)

More Radical Use Of Words

Okay, so you are paying attention to how specific words influence or limit your thinking. You are trying to use some different words to understand things. What else can you do to get out of your conceptual traps and to think more creatively and radically?

You can experiment with different metaphors, as discussed in a previous lesson. Metaphors can carry a lot of "extra" meaning. For example, if you think of human societies as wolf packs, you not only think of humans as predators. Following the metaphor, you might think of "leaders of the packs," and subservient positions that others have. Territorial protection seems normal using this metaphor. You might also think of the dangers of going off alone, as a "lone wolf," and of the value of keeping the pack together through violent leadership if necessary.

What if you see human societies as homeowners with "homeowners associations." (For those of you unfamiliar with these, they are the organizations that set and maintain the rules - and collect fees - for condominium complexes or neighborhoods where the homes are individually owned, but with commonly-owned areas.) What a radically different conception this leads to.

All "homeowners" (citizens) can participate in meeting of the the "association" (government) and even be elected to positions in it. Elected "presidents" are clearly supposed to work for our interests. This metaphor makes meddling in the affairs of other "apartment buildings" (countries) seem silly, unless we were attacked or threatened by them. It also suggests that if we don't like the arrangement, we can sell our home (citizenship) and buy a new one that has a better "homeowners association" (government).

New Words For New ideas

In his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "grok," which supposedly comes from the Martian word meaning "to drink" or "to take in." It's currently found in some dictionaries, defined as: "to understand something so well that it is fully absorbed into oneself."

Perhaps there is a need for a word like this. For example, If I see a spear flying at me, I understand the danger in a way that causes me to immediately duck down. On the other hand, though I "know" the danger of eating too much sugar, I don't apply this knowledge so easily and immediately, so this is obviously another kind of understanding, one that perhaps I haven't yet "fully absorbed into myself." I don't quite "grok" it.

Now, are there feeling that we don't have names for yet? Almost certainly. Are there political systems (already existing or to be created) which are different enough from existing ones to need a new name? I could invent one by tomorrow. Language grows because it needs to. There are always going to be new concepts that will be misunderstood if we only use old words to name them.

A Word-Invention Exercise

Thus, another way to get out of the conceptual traps we are in is to invent new words. That is the exercise for this week's lesson. Observe the things around you, and identify something or some process that hasn't really been named, and invent a word for it. It could be a type of woody plant that isn't quite a tree or a bush or a vine, for example, or perhaps a feeling that resembles curiosity but suggests a desire for something other than truth (curiobsessity?).

Note: You may find that when you have a word for something, you see it more often than you did before. This will have you wondering just how much more their is to be "seen" out there with the help of new language, or conversely, just how much goes unseen because of the words and concepts that obscure our vision.

Until next time,

Steve

www.RadicalNewThoughts.com