Have you ever been in the unhappy situation of having tried to communicate your understanding of an issue to another person and had them refuse to look at what you are pointing out?
The key phrase in the preceding question is “refuse to look”.
Just read a brilliant article that explains why many (most?) people have difficulty communicating their observations to others.
And that is that some people (the few) look and some people (the many) follow orders.
Because the order follower does not observe for himself, he relies on received orders to tell him what to think, do and with what to agree. Celebrity endorsements, pronouncements form men in white coats: “my doctor told me”, “science says” or “the head of the government says” all need to be heeded because they emanate from “an authority”.
Never mind that the reason the person is in authority may be because they told more lies and promised to give away more of the other guy’s money to groups of which you are a member (politicians) or they may be scientists in the pay of special interest groups or doctors who make money if you follow their recommendations.
When an observer endeavours to communicate his observations to an order follower, if the observations contradict the order follower’s orders, the observations are rejected. Full stop. End of story.
This is the mechanism by which tyranny and authoritarianism reigns over the masses.The authoritarian influences merely by making definite statements and giving orders to the indoctrinated.
So here’s something with which to experiment. Instead of conversationally beating your head against a brick wall, try asking these questions:
What data do you have on the subject?
From where did you get that data?
If I could show you that data was incorrect or inaccurate or incomplete, would you be prepared to change your mind on the subject?
If they say no to that and you had time on your hands you could always ask their reason for holding fast to their false data.
