Back in January I blogged about socialization. I was thinking about the concept of liking change but being uncomfortable with changing. Lately I've been thinking about extending that train of thought a little further. Go with me on this one.
Let's say you're a coffee drinker, a real coffee drinker. You know what I mean; the type who buys whole beans from Caribou and has to grind them immediately before brewing. You could never set up the coffee pot the night before you wanted to brew it, unless the pot had a grinder built in, because of what the air would do to the grounds during those 8 precious hours. You can drink coffee with dinner without it keeping you up, and you loathe those who drink decaf. Decaf simply isn't real coffee, is it? It tastes different, and everyone just knows deep down that a "real" coffee-drinker drinks regular.
Deep down, we know certain things are right while others are wrong. It's our conscience, our gut, right? It's a part of every human that whispers a greater moral code that all of humanity should obey. It's something in the gut, or maybe the soul, that is only at peace with a certain arrangement of events. But what if that gut, that peace of the soul, that conscience, could not be differentiated from the us that is an accumulation of the events of our lives? We are all shaped by our upbringings. What if, deep down where it matters, we don't know the difference between the confrontation of something different and a situation that truly merits a "deep in your gut," "right and wrong" line?
I was in Caribou the other day, and I saw an advertisement for their decaf coffee. It played off the belief that decaf coffee is inferior, but it explained how their decaf beans are held to the same high standards as the regulars. It attempted to shift the frame through which the die-hards viewed their niche as to admit others to join in.
What if we didn't just assume the situation in which we are the most comfortable is the right kind of situation?
1 comments:
Very interesting that you translated a simple advertising method into a very real-life philosophy. To answer your closing question, I personally believe that if people adopted a more open-minded mentality, everyone's lives would be significantly less stressful, and the world would be a much better place.
I would like to add a few thoughts inspired from the "right and wrong" idea. As humans, we want clear-cut answers. Open-mindedness is often confused with "not caring." In my opinion, people need to work up the personal mental strength to be okay with a "grey" answer. This would eliminate a vast amount of the world's finger pointing and discrimination.
Thanks~
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