[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #10

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #10

February 24, 2012

Empowerment Series #5

 

 


 

THE STRUCTURE OF INTOLERANCE

 

 

Riots in Afghyanistan!  Dozens of Afghanistans killed in the riots, many
more hurt, wwo young American soldiers killed ... and why?  Because someone
burned a book.  My first thought was, “Give me a break!  Are we back in the
15th Century?  Books are books, paper printed in ink recording some
message.”  Why kill because someone disagrees with you?  Why riot because
you dislike someone else’s opinion?  Why international conflict over
differing understandings about religion?

 

Oh yes, intolerance.  That’s the driving factor that is turning a
disagreement around an opinion into this level of a problem.  And where is
this intolerance coming from?  People confusing their mental maps with the
territory.  Someone somewhere is thinking that their “thoughts” about
something is the ultimate reality.  Silly people.

 

But, of course, we all have done it.  And that’s because we all came through
the “concrete thinking stage” in our cognitive development as children.
This describes one of the stages of cognitive (thinking) development from
Developmental Psychology and one that you can see any day of the week in a 5
to 8 year old child.

They know what they know!  If they think it, that’s what it is!  Period.
End of story.  “If you don’t see it my way, you are wrong, bad, of the
devil, going to hell, I hate you, leave me alone!”

 

This is the structure of intolerance: 

“My view of reality is right; everybody else’s that differs with mine is
wrong, bad, malicious, hateful, sinful.”  And if your view is like that,
then it needs to be stopped, destroyed, killed.  And if you are promoting
something that needs to be stopped, destroyed, and killed, then you need to
be stopped, destroyed, and killed.

 

So what can we do.  Afghan President Karzai called for calm after the
incident at Bagram Air Base where copies of the Koran were found burned.
The Government of Afghanistan have tried to stop the rioting and today shot
a 12-year old boy.  And yet for the past 3 days, the call for calm has not
quelled the protests that have boiled over in Afghanistan.  Moslem leaders
have also called for calm at Friday prayers.  And while this is good and
admirable, it is also symptomatic.  That is, it is not dealing with the
cause, it is only dealing with a resulting symptom.

 

What is the cause?

The cause is the kind of thinking and mental framing that sees something one
does not like, approve, and believe in as something that gives me the right
to violently hurt and punish another person. 

 

The source of the problem is the state of intolerance and the cure for
intolerance is tolerance— to recognize, accept, and even appreciate that
people differ in their understandings and beliefs.  The problem is not
difference itself, but our attitude and response to such differences:




Ø    Do others have the right to differ from us?

Ø    Do others have the right to be wrong?

Ø    Do I have the right or the power to enforce others to see things my
way?

Ø    Will I accept differences in understandings and beliefs?

Ø    Will I give others the right and the power to believe according to
their conscience?

Ø    Will I release my need to force others to see things and do things my
way?

Ø    Will I allow others to do whatever they want to do with books, even
burn them?

 

The point is this— the problem isn’t the burning of any written materials or
books.  Apologizing for that, as Presidents Obama and Karzai did
misunderstands the real problem and assumes that “burning a book” is the
problem.  It is not.  The problem is intolerance which arises from people
not getting beyond the childish thinking of confusing a mental map with the
territory.  The problem is trying to force others to conform to our beliefs.

 

Meaning and performance— that’s the analysis we use in Neuro-Semantics to
understand human experiences.  As long as the meanings of “my way or the
highway,” “I have the right to force you to see and do things my way and if
you don’t to punish you or kill you,” then the performance of rioting,
killing, etc. will occur.  It’s a frame game: with that frame (of mind, of
meaning) you set the rules for that game— the Game of Intolerance.

 

How do we change the Game?  By changing the frame!

So let’s start with ourselves!   Let’s change our own frames about trying to
control the beliefs, understandings, and behaviors of others.  These things
are outside our area of control.  Let’s set the frame of respect that
allows, accepts, and tolerates the right and power of others to act
according to their beliefs as long as it does not impose upon others.  With
that as a foundation, we can then begin discovery conversations to seek
first to understand the other’s views and seek to influence them without the
need to control them.  And in the process, all of us will probably change
and becoming more humanly kind and understanding.

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                              

1 970-523-7877                                               

     

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Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential Movement in 2007, for
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<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

 

 

 

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