Truth and Knowledge The Communication Problem self.ShrugLifeSyndicate
bzichettTruth and Knowledge The Communication Problem self.ShrugLifeSyndicate
submitted 6 months ago * by ImpracticalJuggler
Good at predicting trajectory
AKA The Babel Problem
So you understand Truth. You have a real, comprehensive idea of how this whole shebang works and why its all here in the first place. Congratulations! That is a real accomplishment: of the functionally infinite arrangements of light that this universe has constructed, you are an arrangement that is self-aware.
Now, here comes the real challenge: make someone else understand what you do. Go ahead, I'll wait. What's that? People calling you a fool? You're getting into trivial arguments over the most arbitrary details? The people you're trying to reach, the ones who need Truth the most, are going 'Nuh uh, because SCIENCE' or 'Nuh uh, because RELIGION' and not taking a single step further into understanding what you're trying to say?
Wow, really wasn't expecting that. No really, in the course of human history, no one has come close to your level of understanding of reality, so it should have been a cakewalk to enlighten the masses since you really get it. Absolutely shocking that didn't work.
I'm being facetious of course. Human beings throughout the ages have always been wise, just as they have always been fools. The population has been, and still is, quite diverse when it comes to our models of reality. The garden grows many fruits, and cross-pollination has been on the minds of the wiser ones since the first tribes. There have always been people who everyone went to for advice or direction, just as there have always been those who can't stop flinging their dung.
In the modern era, we call those people 'trolls.'
How many kings have looked at their subjects and weeped at the lost potential of their kingdom? How many wisemen have looked at their fellow villagers and weeped knowing how much suffering they cause themselves? How many attempts have been made by how many people? This is the real problem of humanity.
How do you teach what the student cannot see?
You can't simply transmit the information. This serial form of transmission we call language is incredibly limited in its ability to replicate novel information. For the purposes of this discourse, 'novel information' refers to information that the receiver has limited or no familiarity with. This is because all language is metaphor. When I say 'tree' I am not actually transmitting a tree to you. You are taking a recognized pattern (t-r-e-e) in the context of the situation and deriving a mental image of your own construction.
This is why I don't believe the Bible, or any text, is the literal word of God. It's actually quite insulting to assume a divine being would communicate in such a fallible manner. You hand a book to three different people, each one is going to have a different series of thoughts and images as they go from cover to cover. If you ask each of them what the book was about, you might get some overlap in the answers, but there's going to be some distinct differences in all three interpretations.
This goes hand in hand with what I have learned as a teacher. It's not about the transmission of X, it's about doing Y so that the person you are teaching will walk away with X in their heads. You can't just give someone unfamiliar with X a nice box with a bow on it that contains X. You have to understand the person, how they think, what they already know, and thus how they will interpret what you say, in order get them to construct the same understanding of X.
This is why I talk about empathy whenever communication is brought up. Empathy is our ability to simulate the perspective of someone else. It's crucial in any form of communication. You have to understand your audience in order to conform the information you're saying or writing into a form that can be picked up by those particular receivers. Thus, empathy is a skill. You can be good at seeing from another pair of eyes, just as you can be bad at it. And like running will make you faster over time, so too will interacting with people make you better at understanding people.
When you understand someone, you can begin teaching them. You can take what they say to you and how they act and 'see' their mental landscape. Then, it's just a matter of going from Point A to Point B. Like molding clay to a better form, the teacher takes what the student knows and builds on it, leading them to a point where they understand.
You know, turning water to wine. That thing that one teacher could do.
You want people to understand Truth? First, you must live the Truth. No one wants to listen to a bum on the street about their ideas about God. If you understand Truth, that Truth must free you. It is not enough that you understand to be heard: people must want to hear you. People naturally gravitate towards certain character archetypes. It's in our nature. We trust those who, by the mechanical merits of our brains, are trustworthy. When we trust someone, we accept their word without argument. When we do not trust someone, our brains will rip apart their word, regardless of the objective truth of it, in the defense of our ego.
Being a teacher is not an act. It is not simply speaking and being heard. It is a role. Love. Listen. Be compassionate. Make good choices. Constantly grow.
For the love of humanity, we need more awakened people playing this role.
We aren't making it out of this otherwise.