A weblog with random thoughts and reflections on society and ecology.
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Thursday, December 26, 2002
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
We create our world to a large extent, as individuals and a culture.
Self-fulfilling prophecies, one aspect of how we create our world, have been well documented. We form views about the world, choose actions based on those views, and the consequences tend to confirm our ideas.
Self-fulfilling prophecies creates cycles that we perceive as desirable or undesirable depending on their outcome.
Vicious Cycles
A small business owner may act out of an idea that her employees cannot be trusted to be reliable. This creates an unpleasant working atmosphere. It also creates a filter for her where she looks for signs to confirm her views. Even innocent actions are interpreted as a confirmation. Both gives her employees little reason to be highly committed to their work, and both leads to high turnover rates. Her views creates a situation that in turn confirm her views.
After the terrorist attack in September last year, the Bush administration had a choice between two different responses: Approaching the situation in a level-headed and lawful way, using the international law and justice system. Or use violence and intimidation. Their worldview – militaristic at the core - required the latter choice. This choice in turn fuels increased resentment towards the US, leading to further terrorism. This is perceived as a confirmation of their initial view, and a validation of the necessity of a militaristic approach. After a while, it becomes difficult to imagine that another approach was - and is - possible.
Virtuous Cycles
As we can choose to create vicious cycles, we can choose to create virtuous cycles. The latter choice is often made with more awareness than the former.
A classic example is the “postcard syndrome”. The more postcards we send out for the holidays, the more we receive back (I need to learn this one!).
If we perceive people as likely to be helpful, we act in a friendly and respectful manner which increases the likelihood that people will be helpful.
Applying the Tibetan mind-training techniques we can choose to perceive situations as gifts rather than problems. This helps us relate to situations more appropriately and effectively, which in turn tends to reduce the number and severity of the actual difficulties we experience.
If we expect to be active and healthy in our old age, we choose activities consistent with activity and health. This in turn tends to encourage good mental and physical health, which allows us to stay active.
14:12
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