The Filtering Traits
Jun 12, 2016
The Requirement to Believe Personality Spectrum Filter
Preface
We start each Personality Spectrum Filter discussion by reminding the reader again what ConserveLiberty means by a Personality Filter. ← Click there.
And, as usual, now that the declaration that "our personality filters have an organic, genetic basis" is out of the way ... we continue to remind that ...The biological and genetic basis underlying human personality is expected to be quite complex, with many component parts. By no means should it be construed or implied that the Requirement to Believe Phenotype Spectrum is the result of a single gene. Rather, an ensemble of biological parts are necessary to be expressed and put together just right so that a person's individual place on the Requirement to Believe Spectrum is determined.
Offered by David Apollo
Dear Fundamental Resonance,
I woke up a few nights ago night, and wound up thinking about a recent conversation I had had with a friend of mine. We are built differently from the perspective of so many different Personality Filters and we enjoy getting together. Among the things we share is our interest in thinking about and exploring the things that make us what we are.
But we do come from different filtered perspectives. And, of course, the ability to stumble upon those differences is so instrumental in understanding what our Filters actually are or may be, and thus, how they may differ. So our differences are an asset for uncovering potential Filters and learning how they impact our personalities and perceptions.
Still, we do "run into trouble" with some of our conversations, and I think that is due to a few Filter differences that we have. From my perspective, what seems to be common among all of these "accidents" is that when some of his pre-existing paradigms are challenged, those challenges are not well tolerated. He is fine with challenging lots of paradigms, and we both find that fun generally. But there are times when the conversation takes a direction that becomes impossible to move forward to closure from. In each case I am challenging paradigms that he does not consider challengeable. I haven't figured out how to anticipate when we are going to run up against these, especially if they are newly introduced. But it is easy to figure out when we run into difficulty with them, and that somehow I need to figure out how to back off and to drop and switch to something more enjoyable. We are always able to do that, our relationship and personalities are such that it is easy for us to do. But first we have "the accident."
Well, in this case its just me considering alternate paradigms, something we generally enjoy, which often leads to increased understanding or insights, something we often enjoy. And I've found my own ability to easily consider, try out, and even switch between differing alternate perspectives or interpretations has been instrumental in me coming to understand the world as it really works (rather than how I'd like to believe it works.) For me, my own true sense of Harmony comes with the understanding of actual Truth the best I can. For me, Harmony has nothing to do with believing in a particular imagined (even if comfortable) narrative or perspective, although I admit those are fun too.
That posture works great for us until we stumble upon an area where paradigm challenge is not welcome. And since paradigm challenge is never not welcome by me, its me that ultimately is the source of movement into an uncomfortable paradigm for my friend. Once I detect it, its easy to drop and switch from, but before the drop and switch, the accident happens first.
So I've mentioned before that there are two types of people. (I always divide people into two types along a variety of dimensions. But this one is a biggie.) There is one type, the "People of Faith". And there is the other type, the "People of Fact." This link (--> here <--) elaborates on what I mean by these.
Suffice it to say that People of Faith do not accept that they are not driven by fact. And, People of Fact do not accept that they are not driven by faith. But if you watch them, firstly you will see who is actually able to distinguish real facts from all the other stuff that is often presented as facts. And secondly, you will see who makes their decisions with highest priority going to faith (or feelings) rather than fact. And vise versa.
We are all built how we are built, but this filter difference between People of Fact and People of Faith makes it nearly impossible for them to understand each other from the perspective of "the other". And thus they misunderstand and mischaracterize each other all the time. It leads to frustration and demonization all the time. It leads to war. It leads to tyranny. And both sides believe they have what would lead to the greatest harmony on their side. Their side, not the other side. See the issue?
People of Faith have a different boundary condition on what paradigms can be challenged than do People of Fact. The People of Fact may not see that they are overstepping anything more unusual than an earlier one they have pushed on that was embraced as interesting. The People of Faith cannot see how the unchallengeable could ever have been overstepped in the first place!
I am calling this filter the Requirement to Believe Personality Spectrum Filter. Some are OK with understanding that currently there may be no concrete basis for a belief that something is a certain way. They can see how it could be true, but without proof its just one of several plausible theories. For the person that Must Believe, its different. They will believe a thing if it seems plausible and the rhetoric around it is good and it leads to a narrative that they feel they are on the correct side of. They not only Believe it, they believe they "Know" it To Be True. They see people who want more evidence and a better rational wrapper around an issue as simply being argumentative, difficult, or worse, desiring to sabotage that which is truthful and good. When in fact, what People of Fact are trying to get at is that which actually IS truthful, and thus, harmonic.
So for now, the Filter is "The Requirement to Believe Personality Spectrum Filter".
How would others characterize the way they experience this? I don't really have a strongly set Requirement to Believe filter, so I really don't have a good feel for describing how it might actually work for those who do.
All my Best,
David
Check out other Filter posts
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