The Lenses
I listened to a podcast episode from the Odd Lots podcast earlier this week. It’s a podcast from Bloomberg that mainly covers economics and financial markets, but this episode covered the topic of supply chains.
The interviewee said something that got my attention.
He said: “If you want to change the world, you have to understand it.”
This got me thinking about how we view the world. If I view the world through the scope of geopolitics, I’ll view it differently from somebody who views the state of the world through technology.
How do we break down the world through the use of the lenses through which we see it? Do these lenses cross over or superimpose upon one another? If we understand how different people will view the world differently because of their lenses, how can we then adopt greater empathy?
To explain it, let’s say you look at the world through the scope of your individual childhood. Were you lucky to have a loving family? In what environment did you grow up? Did you struggle financially? Did you have a range of opportunities to attend clubs and expand your horizons? Where did you go to school? Were you inspired by anybody? Were you academically inclined? So many questions that influence how we view the world through the lens of family.
And that’s focusing on one lens in isolation. You’re affected by your culture. In your country, people will value different things, interpret life differently, and have different social norms than people from other countries. If we understand how those in different countries will see the world through a different lens, we’ll reduce our prejudice, and judgement, and be more accepting of others.
The way we think about the world as affected by our specific individual cultures isn’t undebateable gospel. Our way is just one of many possibilities.
There are many other lenses through which to view the world.
If we explore psychological lenses, we realise people have different motives behind their actions.
Philosophical lenses can alter how we approach challenges in life. Those who consider themselves of a more stoic nature could handle an issue with calmness, whereas someone with a short fuse could kick up a fuss!
Scientific lenses lead to us question underlying assumptions.
Religious lenses help us accept our minimal role in this complicated existence.
What happens if I view the world through two lenses superimposed on top of one another? If you’ve suffered through some disease, you’ll likely feel greater empathy and understanding for somebody else in the same situation. Couple this with your religious lens, and you may consider what happens after death. Superimpose the scientific lens and you may consider if your disease can be cured one day.
There are many lenses through which we can view the world. The most important aspect of this is that these lenses are subjective. The collection of lenses we utilise dictates how we process information and interpret or manipulate this information, to then make judgements.
The more people who are aware of or possess a specific lens, the more influential that lens will be. Take the technology lens, for example. You’re reading this through technology. It’s embedded deeply in many of our lives and hence affects the way anybody with technological access perceives the world.
In a simple sentence, a lens is a metaphor for how we see the world. If we don’t clean a lens enough, it can be distorted and hence affect our realities along with it. Hence, it’s important to continuously keep our lenses clean.
Although we can gain an understanding of ourselves if we recognise which lenses drive our lives, the recognition of multiple lenses around the world that we don’t possess encourages greater empathy and understanding of our wonderfully complex world. By considering any issue from outside our own lenses, we’ll contribute positively to making the world a more loving place.
To return to the initial statement, “If you want to change the world you have to understand it”, can we understand an ever-changing world? It could well be impossible. However, striving to understand it through the use of lenses allows us to grasp the differences of people all around the world. If we even consider how personal experience, culture, education, and biology affect the lenses of every person, we’re likely on a positive footing. Still, awareness and positive influence aren’t specifically correlated here. Some lenses can be of a negative influence. Keep an eye out for these also. The use of lenses might not allow us to better understand the world, but it has the potential to make it a much nicer place. To me, that sounds like a goal worth pursuing.
Sources:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326738#:~:text=Cognitive%20dissonance%20is%20the%20discomfort,beliefs%20at%20the%20same%20time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_disengagement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_fallacy
https://adrvantage.com/looking-through-different-lenses/#:~:text=We%20see%20the%20world%20around,beliefs%20and%20assumptions%20create%20others.