Gaining Perspective

The Power of Seeing the World Through Different Lenses

One of the cornerstones of journalism is the concept of fairness and impartiality – the idea that there are always at least two sides to every story. This does not mean that the journalist or media organisation is under any obligation to always present every side of every story, but it does require that they do not take sides and at least acknowledge (overtly or tacitly) that different viewpoints exist and try to understand what those are, and where they are coming from.

This is a practice that also translates from journalism to everyday life, and one that we far too often seem to forget. We assume that, just because we believe something or see things in a certain way, it is (in the words of David Foster Wallace) the “capital-T Truth”. We forget that even our family and friends in most cases do not share the exact same opinion as us on every single topic.

Of course, we do not have to agree with everyone else’s opinion, but we do at least have to acknowledge that it exists and try to understand what it is based on. Sometimes, though, rather than being willing to try to see things from someone else’s perspective, we refuse to even countenance it, claiming that it goes against our principles!

It is the ability to see things from a different point of view, to allow yourself to think about what leads another person to think the way they do or do the things they do, that Foster Wallace talks about in his 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon College in the United States (scan the QR code on this page to watch a truncated video adaptation titled This is Water). It offers us real freedom and allows us to break away from the default setting that says that everything we think and believe is the capital-T Truth and that we get to consciously decide what has meaning and what does not.

It is easy to understand why it is hard for many of us to see things from other people’s points of view, though. We are conditioned to believe that we are the most important person and that everything that is happening is happening to us. “It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth,” says Foster Wallace, who adds that this does not have to be the case, though. “Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.” I would warrant that this ties in with learning how to see things from someone else’s perspective, or simply to consider why someone else thinks or behaves in the way they do. The real reason may be something totally different to what you assume. Paraphrasing Foster Wallace:

Stuck in the queue at the supermarket and getting more and more irritated after a hard day at the office, I can either choose to think about how deeply and personally unfair the situation is, and how negatively it is affecting me, or I can choose to stop and think about how everyone else in the store is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.

All of this ties in with the concept of internal vs external loci of control, whereby we choose to interpret and attribute the causes of events or behaviours either to factors outside of ourselves or our control, such as situational or environmental factors, or to factors within ourselves that we can control, such as our personality traits, abilities or emotions.

All of this is of course easier said than done – I am in no way denying that, nor am I trying to claim that I am perfect and able to consistently achieve this “zen state of mind”. It is a lot easier to blame something or someone for what has happened to us, and it takes a lot less effort to not try to see things from someone else’s point of view. However, you may find that it is a lot more rewarding to put in the effort and try, that it helps you understand other people, and that it brings you closer to them and some kind of shared human experience.

To quote Foster Wallace one last time: “The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.”

Until next month; enjoy your journey!