Controlling one's assumptions

I try to tell people that I don't want to change their mind other than to get them to better understand their own assumptions. The way I look at it, it's not in my interest to surround myself with myself but it is in my interest to decrease the predictability of opposing opinions. And a good way to decrease the predictability of what you say is to know your assumptions and their textbook criticisms. That's how I see it, anyway,

Discovering your own assumptions is not easy. It's like a fish gaining awareness of the water it swims in. That's especially true for the most deeply held of convictions; that which we most believe in we are least likely to be aware of as being a belief and not a universal, immutable truth. Understandably, not everyone is interested in discovering their assumptions. In many cases I think this is because of fear. Boredom and laziness are also culprits.

I'm not free of these faults by any stretch, but to combat them, in today's post, I'm going to lay bare a bit of my world view by asking and answering a question. It's a question that, when answered honestly, exposes a lot about how a person explains (or doesn't explain) the world around them. Without further ado, here it is: How much of our world's circumstances are the result of choice?

Rate yourself on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means that you believe none of our circumstances are the result of choice and 10 means that you believe all our circumstances are because of choice. Where do you stand? I rate myself at about a 2: some aspects of society—even a few significant ones—are a result of choice but mainly we're riding the wave together.

I'm pretty sure my low score puts me at odds with a lot of other people. Foremost, I'm disqualified from believing nearly any conspiracy theory because every conspiracy theory begins with the assumption that the world is controllable. Usually before the conspiracy theorist can begin his explanation, I'm already lost. Similarly, before I can poke holes in their theory, they're lost. We talk past each other.

Other people I'm at fundamental odds with are people who believe we can bring about some Utopian ideal if only we try hard enough and get everyone to believe X or do Y. Such ideas also rest upon the core assumption that the world is controllable, or at least that we can get from here to there by doing something deliberate. I don't see it that way. I observe humans making a mess of things at least as often as they don't, and it's not for a lack of trying to act deliberately.

There are others who I disagree with. But not optimists. Not all of them anyway, though many people who rate on the high end of the control scale may think I'm a pessimist. I'm not, and I don't see what's depressing about a world whose consequences are not entirely up to us. Indeed, I'm inclined to think that it's the opposing view that's depressing. After all, the world undeniably has a history of having problems, and to think that it's both controllable and problematic is to believe that the wrong people have been in control for going on a few thousand years. What a bad track record!

But don't let me change your mind. Go ahead and rate yourself. How much do you believe the world is a result of choice?