{"id":1939,"date":"2011-04-03T16:40:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T20:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/?p=1939"},"modified":"2012-12-09T16:22:01","modified_gmt":"2012-12-09T21:22:01","slug":"colliding-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/03\/colliding-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"When Tribal Moral Communities Collide"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I hit the publish button for my last post Cognitive Conservatism, Moral Relativism, Bias, and Human Flourishing<\/a> I felt a tinge of angst.\u00a0 It took a few days for my rational brain to figure out (or perhaps confabulate) a reason; but, I think I may have.\u00a0 Perhaps it should have been immediately obvious, but my outrage likely clouded my judgment.\u00a0 Anyways, that angst wasn’t due to the potential controversy of the article’s content – I had previously posted more provocative pieces.\u00a0 What I have come to conclude is that the nature of the controversy could be construed as being more personal.<\/p>\n

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It is not hard to imagine that there is a very real possibility that people I love may have been hurt by what I wrote.\u00a0 This left me feeling like a hypocrite because what I have continually aspired to communicate is that “true morality” should promote human flourishing for everyone.\u00a0 Although the overarching message was consistent with my goal, the tone and tenor was not.<\/p>\n

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I was inspired by a blog post<\/a> written by a family member that touched the nerves of my liberal sensitivities.\u00a0 Further, and more importantly, I believe that what he wrote was likely hurtful to others in my family.\u00a0\u00a0 A couple of my tribal communities<\/a> (moral and kin) were assaulted, and I responded assertively.<\/p>\n

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The whole purpose of my blog “How Do You Think?<\/a>“<\/strong><\/em> has been driven toward understanding such diverse and mutually incompatible beliefs that do in fact transcend my family and the world in general.\u00a0 In this particular situation, however,\u00a0 I placed several family members in the crux of just such a moral juxtaposition.<\/p>\n

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I am certain that much of what I have written over the last year may be construed as offensive to some from a variety of different tribal moral communities<\/a>.\u00a0 But one thing I am equally certain of, is that attacking one’s core moral holdings is not an effective means of facilitating enlightenment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I responded to my relative’s pontifications with moral outrage and indignation.\u00a0 I was offended and mad.\u00a0 That is what happens when core beliefs are challenged.\u00a0 We circle the wagons and lash back.\u00a0 But this does nothing to further the discussion.\u00a0 I should have known better.\u00a0 And, that error of judgment may have lasting familial consequences.\u00a0 This saddens me, and I am sorry.<\/p>\n

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So then, how are we to cope with such diametrically opposed perspectives?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you have consistently read my posts you are likely to have come away with an understanding of the workings of the human brain, and as such, realize that it is an incredible but highly flawed organ. \u00a0 What is more important to recognize, is that these flaws leave us prone to a variety errors that are both universal and systematic.\u00a0 The consequences of these errors include Confirmation Bias<\/a>, Spinoza’s Conjecture<\/a>, Attribution Error<\/a>, Pareidolia<\/a>, Superstition<\/a>, Essentialism<\/a>, Cognitive Conservatism<\/a>, and Illusions of all sorts (e.g., Attention<\/a>, Cause<\/a>, Confidence<\/a>, Memory<\/a>, Efficacy<\/a>, Willpower<\/a>, and Narrative<\/a>).\u00a0 The down stream consequences of these errors, paired with our tribal nature, and our innate moral inclinations<\/a> lead us to form tribal moral communities<\/a>.\u00a0 These communities unite around ideologies and sacred items, beliefs, or shared history’s.\u00a0 Our genetically conferred Moral Instincts<\/a> which are a part of our Human Nature<\/a> lay the ground work for us to seek out others who share our beliefs and separate ourselves from others who do not.\u00a0 This is how the divide occurs.\u00a0 And our brain is instrumental in this division and the subsequent acrimony between groups.<\/p>\n

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This is perhaps the most important concept that I want to share.\u00a0 Systematic brain errors divide us.\u00a0 Understanding this – I mean truly understanding all of these systematic errors, is essential to uniting us.\u00a0 Education is the key, and this is what I hope to provide.\u00a0 Those very brain errors are themselves responsible for closing minds to the reality of these facts.\u00a0 Regardless, the hopes that I have for universal enlightenment persist and I hope to endeavor ever onward opening minds without providing cause to close them. \u00a0 I fear that I\u00a0 have taken a misstep – spreading the divide rather than closing it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Please know that Human Flourishing for all is my number one goal.\u00a0 Never do I intend<\/strong> to come off as judgmental, hurtful, or otherwise arrogant or elitist.\u00a0 When I do – please push back and offer constructive criticism. \u00a0 We are all in this together – and time, love, life, peace, and compassion are precious.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the starting point – something that I am certain we share.\u00a0 Don’t you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I hit the publish button for my last post Cognitive Conservatism, Moral Relativism, Bias, and Human Flourishing I felt a tinge of angst.\u00a0 It took a few days for my rational brain to figure out (or perhaps confabulate) a reason; but, I think I may have.\u00a0 Perhaps it should have been immediately obvious, but … <\/p>\n

Read more “When Tribal Moral Communities Collide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,92,37,46,4,57],"tags":[20,17,22,96,93],"class_list":["post-1939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cognitive-psychology-self-improvement-erroneous-thought-processes","category-morality","category-psychology","category-religion","category-skepticism-skeptical-thinking-critical-thinking","category-superstition-2","tag-cognitive-conservatism","tag-erroneous-thinking","tag-intuitive-thinking","tag-rational-thought","tag-skepticism-skeptical-thinking-critical-thinking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3mcUm-vh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geraldguild.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}