Stuart’s Philosophies

I found it funny because I was sitting down listening to a group of people from a specific group that I shall not name. They were complaining about why their employer was unfair. In reality, their employer (a sizable organization) had been changing the way they ran their business over the number of years, which led to a lot of streamlining, retrenchment and pay cuts.

Yet, from my knowledge of this company in recent years, the company was not just doing well, they had paid out fairly large bonuses to their people. The odd thing is, the bonus was given out… and the people I eavesdropped on were saying that the bonus payout was just a distraction - they said that the company was probably going to retrench more people.

Strange - but when people are in  hemmed in by perception, it can be a fate worse than death!

I later had a chat with a friend and I asked why people believe what they believe, and refuse to back down. Here are some reasons I came up with. Maybe you can look at them and consider their validity in your situation:

1. People are lazy. They are shallow thinkers and are unable to develop a well-rounded view of people. They are more willing to listen to sensational news than the truth. They are interested in rumors and gossip as the real thing, but do not bother clarifying because their mental movies are what they like to see. As a result, their first impression tends to be their last, and they carry on with this, not realizing that they are limiting their own possibilities and choices.
2. People refuse to accept they could be wrong. Those who used to declare that someone is “bad” to their colleagues in public use the same public commitment and never get around to realizing that the same person could become “good”.
3. People reinforce whatever they want to believe. I recently realized (sheesh) that there are some people who advocate that personal development should be a free service, and that anyone running a personal development business for profit must be evil. I suppose it’s a little extreme, but whenever there is this kind of priming, I’m sure you will look out for examples to back this up in your own mind.

I guess your faith in the human race should be shattered completely. It begs the question that in order to change, a completely new environment needs to be created. You need to move out of the country (and I know a number of people who do), you need to go for a complete makeover… in order to start anew.

Unfortunately, when something like this brews, a lot of positive growth will turn sour. In the case of the company I mentioned above, it’s very likely that people who continue to believe their company is bad will either end up being retrenched (and they won’t see the people who are being promoted and rewarded)  because their thoughts activate non-productive patterns of behavior, or that because of them the company will lose out due to arguments and disagreements.

Ironically, the more you want to prove that something is untrue, the more others will refuse to believe it. It’s a systemic reaction, and the problem lies far beyond what can be “done”.

What appears to be now is that one person’s image is really not made up of who you are, but a projection of what other people think you are. And as that continues to build up creating a person who is successful, or someone who isn’t. If you are in this kind of a downward spiral of perceptions, you end up thinking that maybe since other people think it is true, it must be true. So, it turns out to be a self-defeating behavioral pattern - and then you buy into the idea.

It’s sad, but I think the subjugation of the human race is happening. Right in your own back yard. And if you don’t find a way to fight it…

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