Chasing the Unknown: the importance of different perspectives

Which life is more fruitful, the life where you question your own thoughts, or accept them as is, undoubtedly?  It is a difficult life, the one of a questioner.  You are forced constantly into a mindset of doubt, worry, and misunderstanding.  The time spent debating with oneself is immeasurable, and the moments of clarity may be few and far between. The cost of being a questioner is the energy, the time, the work.  I will gladly take that work though, instead of finding myself lost in the clouds of distraction, or broken by the simplest alteration of opinion.  

I seek out the unknown.  It is what I do in life, and one of my biggest passions.  I do not say that every person must run so wildly after the strange and different.  Every person must, to be a true and advancing person, take at least the smallest steps toward the new and the weird.  This is the bases of us as human beings, and the defining piece of humanity as a whole.  Experimentation is the growth of us as a species.  My historical ancestors found that if they cut an animal’s skin off, it can be used to stay warm. They questioned the efficiency of a tent, and of walking.  Clothes must have been so strange to the first humans.  Planting seeds in the ground and working the soil to grow edible plants changed who we are as a species. The advancement of that which was once unknown is what brought us further.  

The origins of these ideas were those willing to see the unknown.  I am sure it was not a commonly held belief that boats were a great invention and allowed for more spoils.  But man was willing to step off of the comforts of land, and onto the confusing invention of another person.  After the mere willingness to test another’s theory, the initial acceptance could begin.  If every human had kept a stubborn stone face, and a close eyed refusal, would we have penicillin?  Would glasses and contacts be used?

So many people have decided to close their eyes to other ways of life.  The judgement and hardened minds of these people is a painful scene to see.  Instead of wondering what is the best way to view the world, they view the world from their virgin eyes for the first time, define it in a way that seems logical, and never again think it different.  

A person is grown from a single perspective, at least all of us initially are.  When we are born, and are only small children, we are not capable of the empathy that an adult is.  The world can only be as we see it in face value.  The smallest children don’t understand that I can exist in a different room, it is only that I exist when I am in front of them and then am gone forever when I am not seen.  But this perspective is grown out of.  That is why peek-a-boo is so enjoyed by children; their minds are beginning to play with the concept of existence outside of sight.  And so also, at some point, we are capable of empathy beyond what we start with.  Our original capability of only a single perspective is given up, and we take on the ability to see life from another’s eyes.  Now this does not mean that everyone uses this ability.  Contrarily, I would say a good number of people never attempt to do so, through whatever life experience keeps them from wanting to.  When a new scene is placed in front of them, there is only one logical answer, and that is the very first thought that comes to mind.  

Picture the life of never questioning a thought.  If it is in my head it must be sure and pure and true.  If I have it, it is right.  Now maybe not all are so extreme, but so often it is that there is a limit on a person’s ability to see a new perspective.  What is that limitation, and how to break it, is a sure way to bring better understanding to everyone of the world, and enhance our progress as a whole.

That is why I say you must try to find the different.  Not only that, you should try as hard as you can to convince yourself this new way of life is the best one.  Give me a belief of a friend and I will hold it and mold it and play with it for days.  I will place it in my mind as if it were my own, and view the world through that way.  When I have felt its presence I will try to prove my old way of thinking wrong.  If I can not defeat my old mindset, then I will keep the old; if my old way of thinking is not as strongly felt as my new one, then the new one will persist and I will keep it as mine.

Do not misunderstand me, if a friend tells me something I do not agree with, I will gladly argue my own thoughts. I will fully attempt to make her or him look an idiot, and change their mind to my own thoughts. I am a stubborn arguer, and I will take their point of view just enough during an argument to reconfigure my own as even stronger.  But when all's said and done, if their argument held even the tiniest flame of good thought, I will rightfully be forced to contemplate it further.  For this ability to question my own mind is what makes my arguments so strong, and my character what it is.  

Any of my arguments should not become too emotional as well, though they can be charged and excited.  When I argue with a person, whether they are a friend, a colleague, or a stranger, it is not an emotional cry.  I merely want to lay my logic out in front of them, and have theirs in front of me, so we may compare the both and take what is best from it.  This is an easy indicator to me as to the ability of others to take on new ideas.  If you cannot question your own ideas, then any person questioning them is doing the unspeakable. They are automatically attacking your character, if every belief you have is a belief you hold with the strength of life itself. To question what you believe is to call you a liar and an idiot. So the people who immediately grow to hateful or emotional words, those who use attacks on character and appearance, these people show their inability to view life in new ways.  These are the ones who do not seek the unknown, but instead hide from it.

Once you have accepted that other people’s ideas can be better than your own, the entirety of the world comes before you.  And not just the world of today, but the most intelligent people to have existed in so long a time as written word has been used.  The day you realize that the first opinion is not necessarily the best, and very likely it is not the best at all, is the day you start a fire within yourself for the unknown.  For at that point you realize that the only way to have the best ideas, the truest beliefs, is to intake as much of the unknown as possible, and decide from there.  The decision made between two options is infinitely better than the choice of a single option.  But the choice between an endless amount of options is just as infinitely better than just two.  As I said before, you do not have to feel such a burning desire to learn everything possible only to change opinions, but taking small steps out into the unknown world is necessary.

If you cannot compare different ideas, you are owned by those that plant the ideas for you.  To be so first sighted is to be like a horse with blinders.  You simply follow the carrot placed in front of your face, and turn when there is a tug on your head.  It is very easy to build a machine out of molded metal.  When the bases of society are people who believe only in society and nothing outside of it, the actions of such society can’t be wrong to them.  For the governing officials to do what they would like, they only need to phrase it in a way that is similar to society’s premolded pieces.  If you are able to question your own ways of thinking, it becomes very easy to spot the simple lies and misdirection of some people.  

This close eyed approach is brought about by fear that the other way of thinking is bad for society, or arrogance that no other way of thinking could possibly be so good, or however else. The decision to ignore a different point of view, the complete acceptance of your own perspective, is a lazy way of living, and a sure path for humanity to split into hateful ignorant groups.  As humans we are connective.  We share thoughts, expressions, emotions.  We are who we are because of thousands of years of progress through shared ideas.  Now, in a time where connection is easier than ever; when travelling to distant lands is cheaper and more feasible than any time before; when you can study any language, read any book, speak to a person from any place on earth so easily; now is the time to question your ideas, and chase the unknown.