by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright March 2014
Blind spot thinking (from the previous section) is one of the obstacles to getting a good view of the Big Picture. Blind spot thinking happens when a person can't understand why something is happening, and keeps happening, and just as important, can't understand why their favored solution to a chronic problem isn't working.
One of the most common sources of blind spot thinking is not understanding the context -- the circumstances -- within which an action is taking place.
Here is a comical example: A man is walking from his cell on death row to face a firing squad. He lights up a cigarette. Someone watching says, "Hey! You shouldn't do that. You'll get cancer."
Will he get cancer? No, his circumstance will not permit it. Did the person making the comment think of that? No. That person was engaged in blind spot thinking -- he or she was applying their own circumstance to the condemned man's circumstance.
Here are some other examples:
o US church volunteers travel to a remote area in Africa to build a medical clinic. They spend a month there doing construction work, and assemble a fine looking building. The locals are oh-so grateful and blow kisses to the volunteers as they head home. But... there are no health care people in the area who can man the clinic, so it is abandoned.
o An anti-smoking group supports an anti-smoking campaign because smoking causes cancer. They do this in Angola, a place with an average life expectancy of 40 years.
o A wet-behind-the-ears soldier salutes an officer in a front-line sniper zone, or the converse: doesn't salute an officer in a safe rear area. Either way he's being wrong for his context and he will get called up on it quickly.
A cultural summation of this is the 1970's folk song, Walk a mile in my shoes by Joe South. Here is the chorus:
Walk a mile in my shoes, walk a mile in my shoes
Hey, before you abuse, criticize and accuse
Walk a mile in my shoes
Joe South's song "Walk a mile in my shoes", 1970
One concept Joe misses in this song -- beyond abusing, criticizing and accusing -- is aiding. Offering help needs to be just as context-sensitive as all these other activities. If not, the good intention will produce results as harmful as ignorant intentions -- it will be, in fact, just another ignorant intention.
There are two ways this blind spot thinking can cause problems: It can blind the history reader, and it can blind the participant in the historical event. The latter I call goat sacrificing, and I've written a whole book about it. (Goat Sacrificing in the 21st Century)
Understanding the context in which events are happening is vital to understanding why the people of the event are acting the way they are. The more context is not understood, the more mysterious historical events are going to seem to modern-day history enthusiasts.
--The End--