Calming the Inner Fascist, or
How can we listen to other views?
by Bob Banner
“Why do human beings have the peculiar impression that a belief is the same as the truth?” — Gene Brewer from K-PAX
“All struggles are essentially power struggles, and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.” — Octavia Butler from Parable of the Sower
“An enemy is one whose story we have not yet heard.” Gene Knudsen Hoffman
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Where do our beliefs come from? Why do our beliefs become absolute truths so quickly? What do we do to insure our belief system’s continuity? Why are we afraid of even listening to opposing belief systems? Do we feel the need to “believe” in something even though we haven’t quite worked out all the specifics? Do we feel intimated when people have strong opinions especially if we may not be that sure about our own? Do we think we must have an opinion on every issue in order to be valued by others? Do we become reticent due to our fear of being exposed for not really knowing all the facts? Do we need to know all the facts before we can believe in something? Do we simply go along with the major opinions of the day since it’s safer that way? Are we curious about what we believe in and how our various dialogues proceed with friends, family and coworkers?
After September 11th, many of us are engaging in discussions either in sequestered agreement or in heated debates. I think a discussion about how we engage is crucial.
Beliefs are vital to us. We cherish them, fuel them, feed them, surrender to them and will even die for them. Why is this? What happens when we become so rigid that we cannot listen to, or at least tolerate, alternative beliefs and views? If we are simply arming ourselves with facts that substantiate our beliefs then what is really going on? Will dialogue ever be possible? Or will we simply be content in living in our separate boxes resting assured that our precious beliefs are in proper order?
Most of us have worked years (perhaps a whole life time) developing a cosmology or ideology to fit any situation. We simply need to explain things so we can get up in the morning and get on with our lives. If we adhere to a statement such as “terrorists hate our freedoms” and that’s all there is to it, we’ve created a pretty comfortable ideology that seems to fit future terrorist actions. It might make us feel okay but what does that have to do with getting at the truth of the matter?
Is there a cosmology or ideology that actually encourages listening, that tolerates and appreciates different viewpoints? Actually, I think that ideology is called democracy. The term is used so frequently and loosely that I wonder if we truly understand what it means. If democracy requires that we welcome a variety of viewpoints, we seldom practice it in our homes, our work places, academia or in the military. So, what is “democracy” all about, and why would so many people cheer killing for it if they but rarely taste it?
Of course our personal life experiences will frequently determine what filter we use to understand situations. But how often do we step back to study or observe our filters?
I was lucky. An interesting educational experience jolted me out of my rigid belief patterns. Each person in a small group of 12 practiced putting on a different filter. Our teacher asked us to suspend our comfortable beliefs in the hope of expanding our horizons, stretching the boundaries of our filtered knowledge.
My job was to read right-wing literature since the filter I was accustomed to was 100% left wing. I didn’t like the assignment at all. It took me years to finally get to a point where I could argue the left perspective successfully! Now I was being asked to suspend it?! I didn’t want to admit my insecurity, or that my identity was completely wrapped up in a particular ideological movement. I simply wanted to out-yell someone who disagreed with me. I wanted to be right! And I would go far and wide to prove that I was right… dig into those archives and accumulate more and more evidence (ammunition) to substantiate my feelings and beliefs.
What I didn’t comprehend was that the particular psychic mechanism (call it need or whatever) that was alive and well in me was also working in other people.
Somehow if I could grasp that we were all working for truth, basic wisdom, and that we are all basically good, but just coming at our positions from different angles then perhaps my respect and compassion could widen. But it didn’t. Something in me just wanted to make them wrong. When you make someone wrong it is so easy to take the next step demonize them, make them an enemy and finally have all the necessary righteousness and callousness to murder them.
However, reading right-wing, conservative anti-liberal literature did not turn me into the feared Aryan Nazi that I so perversely imagined it would. I gradually expanded my awareness to include others’ arguments and their ideological positions in my ever evolving landscape of beliefs and perspectives. When I actually spoke and befriended someone I’d previously judged to be an “enemy,” I was able to apply this awareness. We talked, listened, argued, and grasped the inner motivations that inspired each of us. We also had the opportunity to see each other’s gestures, and learn about our likes, our passions, our fears. The person I once called my enemy became a bit more human in my eyes. And to murder such a person would seem so devastatingly wrong.
This process helped me enormously. But it was only the beginning. I discovered that calming the inner fascist takes an ever-growing heart that realizes that we are literally and viscerally interdependent. The heart knows that if we had the others’ life experiences, we might well believe as they do… and vice versa. This is why often we will not change unless and until we directly experience what the other has experienced. And doesn’t democracy include the notion that each of us has a bit of the truth?
Because I did not lose a loved one during 9.11 my interpretation may be wildly different from someone who did. Because I didn’t lose a loved one during the killing of more than 3700 Afghan civilians by the US bombing, I will not know the kind of vengeance that might grow in my heart.
Another method that assisted me in becoming more flexible and open to different viewpoints was starting a magazine that explored wild theories about the origin of human beings and why we have become the way we are. Granted, I already had an inclination to be suspicious of so-called Reality Makers, such as popular TV pundits, broadcasters, writers, government leaders, celebrities. I felt I needed to go outside the box, sometimes way outside of the box, so I could grasp a deeper truth. And because of that experience I learned the incredible vitality, beauty and diversity of various viewpoints… and learned to respect them all.
There are truths that are expedient and necessary for a temporary fix. But if one wants to go beyond the superficial opinion makers, one needs to go much deeper than limiting one’s source of information solely to mainstream media. One needs to pursue truth with committed passion if one is seeking genuine knowledge and wisdom.
So, what kind of questions can we ask ourselves if we are serious about pursuing truth. We could ask:
* Where are we getting our information? And how do our belief systems affect where we look and what we find?
* How much do we trust it and why?
* How much does psychological and emotional needs have to do with beliefs? Do we believe in gravity because it’s a theory, because it feels good or because it’s a fact? Do we believe in democracy because it’s a good theory, because it feels good or because someone told us?
* How does our mind-body-spirit organism resonate with certain information? Is our intuitive bullshit detector turned on or has it become layered by filters that have more to do with feeling secure, keeping our jobs, or being comfortable than with discovering the truth?
We are at an incredible turning point. We can use the 9.11 attack (or a plethora of other political situations/crises) as a wake-up call to ask some very deep and disturbing questions… or we can go slipshod into our business-as-usual syndrome and attack anyone whom we despise (typically defined as someone who disagrees with us). Winston Churchill wrote, “Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across the truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off and hurry on about their business as if nothing happened.” I hope we can use our dialogues, arguments, and our study of 9.11 (or the current Trump fiasco in all its interpretations and dramatic fiascos!) as an opportunity to stretch ourselves to a deeper truth. And when we make such discoveries, I hope we will allow them to permeate our core and change us.
