(no subject)

There is nothing more dangerous than a person whose heart is in the right place, whose values are without fault, and whose perceptions are skewed. They're like a person determined to obey the traffic laws to the letter, but firmly convinced that the red light is green and the green light is red. They can do untold damage and wonder why everything is going so wrong when they know they always do the right thing. Sometimes it's obvious when you run into a person of this type--some people have obvious personality disorders, something may have happened in childhood or in the wiring of their brain which makes them perceive things differently from the ways healthy people do. Some people continually make other people into victims of their perceptions while remaining convinced that they are the wronged ones. Most situations aren't that clear-cut; most people's perceptual problems are much more subtle. Probably we all have perceptual problems of some kind, and it doesn't necessarily matter if those disturbances are cultural, familial, individual, or genetic.

I think this is one reason I don't like to commit to an idea or ideology. I don't have any real doubt of my values, but knowing something of the destruction brought about by other people who literally see things differently than most people see, hear things differently than most people hear, smell and taste and feel things that may not even be there, I tend to wonder how accurate my own perceptions might be, and so I don't want to put too much trust in them for fear of causing harm. I still wonder if I should trust my perceptions more or less than I do.