Into the Unknown

Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of Defense made a statement on February 12th, 2002 during a news briefing. When asked a question about intelligence gathering he said; “… there are things we know we know. … there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns …if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries; it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.” No kidding.

As ridiculous as this statement may seem at first glance it bears contemplation, especially given the vitriolic and seething politically charged climate that I consider the world to be in at present. Let’s be honest here. We are influenced by the events and voices surrounding us at all times. We each have opinions that we either choose to keep to our self, share within our circle of influence or display on a visual, written or verbal pedestal in hopes that the whole world will see and marvel at it.

It’s never been easier in the history of mankind for an individual to share their thoughts, actions or personal experience with a worldwide audience. Social media makes this possible in absolutely unprecedented ways. Who could have imagined a mere handful of decades ago that one person with a device small enough to fit in their pocket could so easily influence the thoughts and incite to action tens of millions of other people? Today truly is a brave new world down on the farm and the day has dawned on one of humanity’s greatest unknown unknowns. What we do know, and what is widely accepted, is that this ability to share with the rest of the world in an instant is a double edged sword that has begun to cut deeply into the fabric of society.

At the risk of losing some readers to boredom let me give you a short rundown on my perception of the root cause of the current problem. Humanity is voyeuristic by nature. We are hard wired at birth to watch and listen to what our environment is doing. Our powers of observation are absorbed through our senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell. This sensory input is then analyzed by our on board computer we call a brain. Then, through the process of deduction and reason, we make decisions about how to think about and respond to what we hear, see, feel, smell and taste. Of these five senses the two most basic and influential are our hearing and sight which control the most rudimentary of our survival instincts. Do we run away or stand and fight? It’s that simple.

Our immediate response to outside stimuli is first and foremost influenced by what we see and hear even if not supported by truth or fact. How we choose to initially approach this outside stimuli is often pretty basic. Are we faced with friend, foe, happiness, comfort, fear, love, acceptance, ignorance, hate, belonging or isolation? The problem is as the level of social sophistication has increased over the ages our fight or flight reflexes have not always kept pace. We often open ourselves up to situations where our first impressions and reactions are incorrect and based on incomplete or faulty facts. Given our present day technological ability to tune in and turn on to nearly anything we wish, whenever and wherever, and a voyeuristic infatuation spurred on by powerful marketing forces pushing immediate gratification, we find ourselves willing participants in emotional manipulation and group think. But don’t take my word for it.

 Go to any sporting event and observe the actions and reactions of the spectators in the stands as much as what happens on the sporting field of battle. It’s fight or flight. It’s either human nature at its finest or its worst depending upon how you choose to view it. Our views will always be skewed towards what we know, what we fear, what we like and what we are willing to accept. It’s what we don’t know, but think we do, that muddies the waters and creates the problem. This is the ultimate “unknown unknown”.

Remember the movie King Kong? Actually, you might remember quite a few King Kong movies if you’ve been around as long as I have. Regardless, the story remains the same. The big bad, misunderstood monster is perceived as a threat to mankind. The first instinct is to run away. The second instinct is to dominate and eliminate the threat. Finally, it takes cooler heads and keener observation to finally understand that the monster, with all its negative qualities, just wants to be left alone and has as much right to exist as anyone or anything else. Critical thinking finally kicks in but it’s too late. The misunderstood monster dies in the end, but at least the allegory in the movie has shown us the ugly errors of prejudice and intolerance and the importance of coming together to fight and right a common wrong, right? Thus, we walk out of the theater or turn off our smart viewing device and settle back to contemplate how this newfound information can make us more understanding and tolerant humans, right? Ah that this were so.

The reason most of our first impressions and reactions are wrong is because more often than not in today’s world we are relying on our less than perfect, faulty, hearing and sight. It’s less than perfect and faulty not by nature, but instead, due to being filtered through the selective sieve of those whose goal is to manipulate us into thinking and feeling in a way that is beneficial to their cause, purpose or agenda, and we love it! In fact we just cannot get enough of it! We eat it up, day in and day out, not thinking for our self, or of specific and calculated consequences to ourselves or others. We choose instead to let someone else do the thinking for us. It’s just easier, and more entertaining, that way. We don’t know what’s going to happen next and, yes, we are truly into the unknown. In fact the more unknown and unreliable the more we appear to enjoy it! Let’s prod the monster with our digital electronic stick and see what happens next. Let’s not think about consequences or reactions or whether it’s a good, honorable, respectful or right thing to do. Let’s just do it and see what happens next. We are the “unknown unknown” that Donald Rumsfeld spoke of nearly two decades ago. Indeed it is our very nature to predictably act this way. However we don’t have to be. We simply choose to be.

My instinct tells me that often when confronted with things we find objectionable and not to our liking we are shining the light in the wrong direction. The monster of the dark isn’t under the bed, hiding in the closet, on some fictional island, or in another part of town or the world at all. The monster dwells within each of us. Like the pod people of a B rated science fiction flick we’ve been consumed by a pervasive veil of darkness and therefore don’t recognize it as such. We fail to see it for what it is even when it’s literally staring back at us in the mirror, force fed to us on the nightly news or in the palm of our hand as we tap out tiny messages to people, sight unseen, who we hope to influence in 140 characters or less. We are the unrelenting and unforgiving unknown.

I used to hear and believe that one of the primary reasons for attending college or university was to learn how to exercise critical thinking. I’m not sure this is the case any longer. There appears to be a lack of desire to accept understanding, critical thinking, free speech or diverse opinion within many of our hallowed halls of higher education. Critical thinking seems to have been replaced instead with an emotionally charged response to critically manipulate and codify special interests and pit one against the other like some great universal spectator sporting event. I don’t know about you but the way I see it if one side is unceremoniously eliminated from attending this engagement then we all eventually suffer by losing the whole ballgame.

The good news is there are ways through this mess. In order to do so it’s going to take honest effort, genuine acceptance and a willingness to put aside pet prejudices and perceptions and truly listen to one another. This means taking an intellectual stance of critical thinking and admittance that we will really not know a damned thing about one another until we are ready and willing to accept the fact that each of us, individually, not as some group ethnically, physically, socially or spiritually, is as genuinely different and unique from one another as the scientific and social truth and facts point out we are. Agreement to this one fact alone will go a long way to helping begin to put so many of these hot button issues on a level playing field of understanding. Personally I won’t allow myself to be categorized or placed in anyone’s restrictive hypothetical box and neither should you.

The next time you sit at or pick up your “smart device” realize that the “smart” in that device starts with you. Don’t get sucked into divisive or negative conversations and lines of reasoning. Use some judgment and exercise that individuality you’ve been telling everyone else you have ever since you were telling everyone about it back in junior high school. You’re not required to accept what you see and hear just because it comes from a so called trusted source, even if that source is one you’ve previously found to be trustworthy or that you’ve appreciated, looked up to and admired in the past. Think for yourself. You are the unknown that makes life for the rest of us a beautiful mystery. So, let the rest of us get to truly know who you are in a constructive and meaningful way. Stand up, stand out and when you let your voice be heard, let it be a voice of reason, acceptance and understanding. You don’t have to run and you don’t have to fight. You just have to be known as someone who cares not just for them self but someone who truly cares for all others as well. It’s only a battle if you choose to make it one. I care. No kidding.

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©2017 Michael D. Davis All Rights Reserved

Michael D. Davis is a communicator by vocation, a mentor by avocation and a social media maven by choice. His work can be found on popular channels on the web and on his blog at http://thedailychalkboard.tumblr.com/ Michael welcomes your comments and invites you to join him. Just Google #michaelddavis or #thedailychalkboard to find him and request to connect.