Broad-minded people understand that others vary considerably, and evaluate each individual on unique perceptions. Narrow-minded people trust only their own tribal kin. Paranoids think everyone is out to harm them. But the most frustrating people are those who fanatically believe everyone else is trying to do to them what they would do to the others if they could, and who believe the only safety is in “doing unto them” first, no matter how stupid, evil, or harmful the act (even to those doing it )

“Proactive” folks fall down rabbit holes easily. Assuming everyone else has weapons, they must buy their own guns. Assuming everyone else would do horrible things if they had the chance, they want to act first to control absolutely the laws and police. They talk themselves into the most illogical and self-destructive illusions.

Worst of all, they always project that “others” have only the evil traits they themselves feel. They think they know what they themselves would do if only they had the power to do so. Lie, steal, kill – whatever – “we have to stop them” and no matter how badly we act, we are only doing what they would do to us if they had the chance .

And yet – in day-to-day “real life” social context, none of this is generally true. Individuals vary a lot, but mostly get along just fine. The projection universe is an elusive virtual fiction gone bad .

“It’s Simple”

Nouns really mean something. Water, rocks, people – the descriptive power is infinite. We also use them to describe intangibles – “fact”, “right”. And then we use them in declarative exclamations “that’s the truth”, “we did the right thing.” And, of course, the ongoing political and meme darling “it’s simple .”

But “it” rarely is. “An elephant exists” is simple enough.  But calling an elephant “simple” would be insane. Defining an elephant one can listen to the various blind men saying “it’s simply like a tree”, “it’s simply like a wall” based on the relative position of the blind man. Even when we grasp the whole and understand an elephant is simply not a mouse, we have no idea of the complexity of an elephant at all levels.

The world is infinitely complex, fractally intertwined, especially when time and conditional decisions are involved. Something can be contradictory, both true and untrue, irrelevant or useful, dependent on circumstances. Only a few actions are irreversibly simple: “jump off the cliff” might be one. 

When any leader tells you something “is simple”, beware. It’s one way to end all arguments, but it can “simply” be wrong, untrue, or irrelevant. And certainly ignoring all complexity and conditional options: “it’s simple – we must cross the flooded river” ignores that there are many ways to cross a river, and at various times a river might be lower, and we might really not need to cross the river at all. 

But leaders exist to provoke actions. None as simple as they like to pretend .