Saw this as a repost and the reposter commented “Every single word of this resonates with me.”
I felt for both of them and was pleased that my previous occupations, training, learning and disposition have landed me where my son said to me once, “You are very comfortable in your own skin.”
I think that’s a compliment! At least, that’s how I took it. And it is a pretty fair assessment. You could line the rest of the 8 billion inhabitants of this mudball up to all tell me I was wrong and unless they could give me valid data I did not have when I made my assessment, I would not agree with them. I read once that was a good definition of personal integrity, observing to observe what you observe. And personal integrity is something I value highly and aspire to.
Now, how do I help my newly awakened friends past the trauma caused by lack of agreement with the majority? After all, agreement is what we have been pointed in the direction of since we were born. Do or say things with which other people disagrree and we are punished, one way or another.
So the first thing is how to share your newfound enlightenment with others.
I think the first thing is to decide if you want to keep your friends and relatives comfortable being with you. If you do, remember to take things on a very gentle gradient when you are talking to them. After all, you have awakened to a reality that to many is a pretty mind-boggling scenario.
I have found that providing data does not work. It’s just like water off a duck’s back when it hits up against contradictory data. And I learned the first barrier to learning is thinking you know it all already. My best effort to overcome this attempts to bypass this barrier by asking questions.
This was an excellent suggestion I heard, to ask questions to get them to look. Socrates used this method centuries ago to get people to look and learn for themselves, that’s why it is called “the Socratic Method”.
One way to start is by referring them to media articles (‘cos they trust the government and media implicitly) that lead them into the subject. Start with mild things before gradually building up to the gob-smackers. I’ve created an article that lists some of the many questions that could be asked. It’s here: https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/Covid_Education.html
“Did you see so-and-so got done for corruption?” referring to a recent newspaper article opens the door better than “Nearly all politicians are bought and paid for members of a global elite who want 95% of us dead.” There are a lot of steps between those two statements. You have travelled those steps, they haven’t. So expecting them to jump from where they are to where you are is a big ask.
And, “Did you see the article on Pfizer’s rap sheet?” rather than, “All vaccines do harm and the Covid one is a kill shot!” Again, there is a long way and a lot of data between those two statements.
The second item I will take up in this article has to do with correctly estimating the amount of effort required to produce a desired result. After all, if you choose to open a large safe door with the same amount of force you would use on a fly screen door you won’t budge the safe door an inch! The corollary of that is equally unworkable. You’d pull the screen door off its hinges!
So it pays to keep in mind correctly estimating your audience when considering what to share with them.
And finally, as a gift to you, here is one piece of wisdom that has stood me in extremely good stead before, during and after the height of the insanity, the Two Rules For Happy Living.
https://www.livinginwellbeing.org/what-are-the-two-rules-for-happy-living/
