What makes people so dogmatic?
I have a little story to tell. A few years back, we came to know that a person we knew quite well was in into drugs. I tried to speak to him on which he retorted "Its my life. Let me do what I want." Not able to press the matter further, I let it go. A month or so later, we came to know that a party gone bad put him in rehab and a close friend of his had died. The point I am trying to make is that what makes people so rigid. Why do people have to 'stick' to meaningless pillars of illogical support. What makes people 'stick' to what they think is right, when they know they are doing is wrong, or do they? What makes people never leave their "safe house" and take a look around and maybe do something different. Why are people so 'religious'? You don't have to be revolutionary all the time. Just take a short walk on a path that you have never seen before.
Here is my question to you: What do you think is the reason for this? Why do you think people are afraid to step out of the shoes of what they always do and do something even trivially different from what they are 'supposed' to do?
posted by Arjun Satish @ 8:37 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
It is interesting that you bring up this question since it has plagued me for a very long time and I haven't been able to find or come up with a completely satisfying explanation.
I can give you some of the possible reasons that I have come up with. I do not claim that these are correct but its what I have been thinking.
1) I think lots of people do not want to change what they do because they aren't completely sure what will happen if they do and this frightens them. People like the sense of security of knowing what happens next.
2) People don't like to take responsibility for a wrong step. If something goes wrong while following someone else you can always blame them. But when you take a chance on your own and it fails, the responsibility is yours.
3) Peer pressure can also play a huge role. If one knows that doing something, however practical and logical it is, goes against the beliefs and practices of say your relatives or general society, then one will definitely be inclined to not do it at all.
These reasons are by no mean complete or entirely correct, but its what has come to my mind. I would gladly be ready to listen to other possible insights into the matter.
Sidharth, I completely agree with you. Also, I would like to add that its "hard". Its not easy to do something that you have never seen or done before. Especially in the early stages, gives the person a sense of being lost. Being out there on your own, was never easy, but if it did, would probably would loose its charm.
I would say, most people have their own reasons for being rigid about something. Now, those may or may not be logical from your point of view, but if by following them, those people feel better, then they have every right to do so.
I can ask you the question "why do you have to stick to Ubuntu even though you know there are problems with the way sound is handled in Ubuntu?" Well, you'll have your reasons which may or may not sound logical to me, because our very requirements from an OS might be different. But you still stick with Ubuntu, as I do with Windows ;)
Hope that explains the rationale behind the irrational conduct of many.
I agree with Sid that people are by nature risk-averse and shirk responsibilities. That deters them from trying out a tangential alternative.
Ok lets discuss bout this ..is there any distinction between whats 'right' and whats 'wrong'..
i feel its purely relative..whats right for one person may be wrong for another..so each one has his/her opinion as to whats right and whats wrong..
these decisions are influenced by several factors ...a persons character is built with these "things" which he feels is right/wrong..the wonderful thing is that ppl are more sure of whts right/wrong for others than whats right/wrong for themselves...:)
collectively it feeds his/hers EGO...and out of it arises the rigidity..adamance..like say for instance "i take drugs...i drink hard..its my money..and what bothers u"..kind of attitude...
Why do you think people are afraid to step out of the shoes of what they always do and do something even trivially different from what they are 'supposed' to do?...
from evolutionary perspective..
when we begin our lives as a child..u would have observed how daring we were compared to what we are now..which i feel is because we are all born into a "system"...a "machinery" whose ultimate aim is SURVIVAL..as we grow older our "link" with this "system" becomes stronger as we become more responsible...and this system has "hard wired" paths which leads to survival..its like saying if u blindly follow this path chances that ur genes will be passed on to the next generation are high and hence ensuring ur survival..ur immortality...
Generation after generation would have passed on their experiences and thus forming the list of "supposed " things to do.The fear to do anything outside this is instinctive..the fear is in our genes...:)
from a philosophical perspective...
human beings are fragile creatures and try to hide from themselves the certainity that they will die one day.They fail to see that its death itself that motivates them to do the best things in their lives.They are afraid to step into the unknown ...They don not see that if they are aware that they will anyway die oneday,they would be even more daring,to go much further in their daily conquests coz ultimately they wud have nothing to lose for death is inevitable...
Ish, logic need not determine everything. I am sure Osama Bin Laden had a statement to make when he executed 9/11. I wouldn't call that a valid reason for 2000+ people to die. Nor is 9/11 the reason for a war to start. As far as Operating systems are considered, Windows is good at playing games. Ubuntu is a beautiful programming environment (though its getting over it and going towards a good complete operating system). Each has their own advantages over the other. What bothers me is that people can't appreciate this. For them, one working solution is a solution-to-all.
Mahesh, Awesome comments! When you look at what someone else or a group is doing, its a third person's perspective. That perspective helps a lot. That's the reason why discourse helps, you can't change the world solo. But you can just tell, what the other person does with your inputs is upto them. What annoys me is the fact that people just shut themselves up. They just do not want to listen. Why not!
I am a bit late here I guess...
After thinking a lot about it (what u said in this blog) and relating different things, the explanation that seems most suitable to me is: Like everything in this world human brain also has a limit. In some sense its limit is the (in)ability to understand itself.
What makes you "believe" in things are evidences. For example a lot of people buy things like astrology as they see "evidences". If you examine carefully, the trick in astrology is to write stuff that is so ambiguous that the "belief" starts giving the "evidence".
I can vouch for this as I have done this myself. I used to think some events happened in my life, for a reason. The circumstances are more or less such that you somehow find some satisfying explanation or your so called "reasons". (sorry for being so ambiguous)
I see no harm in holding on to what you believe in until you are proved wrong. But people should have enough courage to accept that they had been wrong all the time.
Arjun, I want to know your thoughts on this...
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