How to unlock a jealous heart
I recently read a story that was... it was all about the ethics of influencing how people think. Like, if you had the power to change someone's thoughts, to make them behave and even feel a different way, would that be ethical?
The story presented arguments for both sides, like... for the "for" side, it argued that people would be happier if they didn't think in jealous ways, or get irrationally upset about things beyond their control, or try to manipulate others, and things. And for the "against" side, it was argued, even if that's true, the person still has a right to be who they are, free of any influence... and no one person has a right to dictate what another might think or believe, anyway, no matter how good your intentions.
I've heard those kind of arguments, myself, about me.... Members of the faculty talking late at night, when they didn't think I was listening. At the time, I didn't know they were even talking about me... I thought they were just discussing philosophy. But now I realise that they were worrying over the presence of someone in their midst who really did have the power to change a person's mind.
Except the thing is, I would never actually use it that way. I want to change people... but... not like that.
I think that everyone basically has the potential to become a good, kind and thoughtful person. They just have to see reasons why they should be so-- ones that work for them, and that's different for everyone-- and they have to overcome the things that are keeping them from being so, like fear or resentment or the desire for revenge. Often there are a lot of little things holding other things in place that stop people from changing... if they believe in revenge, then first they have to see why revenge isn't good, and then they have to understand what they'd do in place of that. And often they believe in revenge because of other things they've learnt, like maybe how justice requires punishment or how might makes right, and so you have to unpack those, too. And like I said before, for each person they're very different, the keys that will unlock those understandings. Often they need to be very specifically designed, and you just can't know. So it stands to reason that the majority of people, over the course of their lives, don't change that much.
Also, all of this is overlaid with the reaction that people usually have to being told what's right for them, or being told that they're wrong. Just telling someone they're wrong... it doesn't usually work, because being wrong hurts and they have no reason to believe it's so, just because you said so, and their instinct to protect themselves from pain and the fact that they've always thought this and stuff, those are reasons to believe it's not so. Not very good reasons, but ones that people use and that have emotional power over them. So usually people don't change because they're told, unles they're very thoughtful people. They change because they see something or experience something that happens to fit the lock that holds the chains that bind them from changing. They change because of information-- but people push away information when you just say that it's information, so they have to experience it in a way that they can't deny.
So... if I wished for someone to see that revenge was wrong, I would give them the exact information that they needed, that specific person, to understand why revenge was wrong. I wouldn't alter their mind. They would come to the conclusion on their own. It would just so happen to be that what I showed them, inside, was exactly what they needed to know to change. It would be natural growth, like that which results from a sudden insight, or a dream, or being struck by a certain phrase and turning it over in your mind.
It's about revealing truth to people, not just arbitrarily making them believe something else whether it's right or wrong. I guess it would be possible to use this to make people believe wrong things, too, by finding just the right ideas that would cause them to think a certain bad way, but... I'm not capable of putting lies in people like that. So... it would only be a revealing of good things....
The story presented arguments for both sides, like... for the "for" side, it argued that people would be happier if they didn't think in jealous ways, or get irrationally upset about things beyond their control, or try to manipulate others, and things. And for the "against" side, it was argued, even if that's true, the person still has a right to be who they are, free of any influence... and no one person has a right to dictate what another might think or believe, anyway, no matter how good your intentions.
I've heard those kind of arguments, myself, about me.... Members of the faculty talking late at night, when they didn't think I was listening. At the time, I didn't know they were even talking about me... I thought they were just discussing philosophy. But now I realise that they were worrying over the presence of someone in their midst who really did have the power to change a person's mind.
Except the thing is, I would never actually use it that way. I want to change people... but... not like that.
I think that everyone basically has the potential to become a good, kind and thoughtful person. They just have to see reasons why they should be so-- ones that work for them, and that's different for everyone-- and they have to overcome the things that are keeping them from being so, like fear or resentment or the desire for revenge. Often there are a lot of little things holding other things in place that stop people from changing... if they believe in revenge, then first they have to see why revenge isn't good, and then they have to understand what they'd do in place of that. And often they believe in revenge because of other things they've learnt, like maybe how justice requires punishment or how might makes right, and so you have to unpack those, too. And like I said before, for each person they're very different, the keys that will unlock those understandings. Often they need to be very specifically designed, and you just can't know. So it stands to reason that the majority of people, over the course of their lives, don't change that much.
Also, all of this is overlaid with the reaction that people usually have to being told what's right for them, or being told that they're wrong. Just telling someone they're wrong... it doesn't usually work, because being wrong hurts and they have no reason to believe it's so, just because you said so, and their instinct to protect themselves from pain and the fact that they've always thought this and stuff, those are reasons to believe it's not so. Not very good reasons, but ones that people use and that have emotional power over them. So usually people don't change because they're told, unles they're very thoughtful people. They change because they see something or experience something that happens to fit the lock that holds the chains that bind them from changing. They change because of information-- but people push away information when you just say that it's information, so they have to experience it in a way that they can't deny.
So... if I wished for someone to see that revenge was wrong, I would give them the exact information that they needed, that specific person, to understand why revenge was wrong. I wouldn't alter their mind. They would come to the conclusion on their own. It would just so happen to be that what I showed them, inside, was exactly what they needed to know to change. It would be natural growth, like that which results from a sudden insight, or a dream, or being struck by a certain phrase and turning it over in your mind.
It's about revealing truth to people, not just arbitrarily making them believe something else whether it's right or wrong. I guess it would be possible to use this to make people believe wrong things, too, by finding just the right ideas that would cause them to think a certain bad way, but... I'm not capable of putting lies in people like that. So... it would only be a revealing of good things....