Same Differences

By Patricia Lefave

Suppose we are talking about exactly the same event in all cases as defined below.

I would really like you to think about the difference between these three statements:

A. It makes no sense at all.

B. She makes no sense at all.

C. I can make no sense of it.

I will give you some hints here.

A. Is a judgement of something, which at least SOUNDS objective..

B. Is a judgement of someone, which also SOUNDS objective.

C. Is a direct statement about the self. I also think “C” is the most accurate statement since it is in the first person singular.

How something is framed, presented or defined has a great deal to do with how it is perceived and can also make the perception of something completely wrong despite the certainty of the one doing the perceiving. This is not something, from which mental “inferiors” suffer but which everyone else who is not so defined has got right. This is part of how human beings everywhere tend to think, without really noticing that they are doing so. There is no “them and us” in this problem. We are All them and we are ALL us. So we need to stop the nice, neat and ever so comforting “splitter” bit and get REAL.

As in the above example, though the actual event or person being judged has not changed at all; the perception of the person or event may change completely depending upon the information used or even available to make the judgement. The statements of judgement made above are all meta statements. They are ambiguous generalizations connected to nothing at all specific and as such they are all but MEANINGLESS. They may represent a starting point or a theory in a search for missing information which either proves, or disproves them, when attached to concrete evidence, or a specific framework, but alone, they are nothing more than an opinion or an attempt to believe that something is, or is not understood, or that it can, or cannot, BE understood, but they are NOT statements of fact. That makes these statements metaphysical, not PHYSICAL, or substantial.

Lets try this one:

“She's just being defensive.”

Is that statement in, and of, itself, a good thing or a character flaw?

What was your first reaction?

Are you well trained in dysfunction to react to it instantly as a character flaw? Are you sure about it?

OK...so what is it that “she” is “defending” herself against?  Do you know? Does it matter to you? If so, why do you have the knee jerk reaction? If not, why doesn't what “she” is defending herself against, MATTER to you. Is it because if you actually knew you might be wrong and have to feel bad about YOURSELF?