Ugh.
Is it just me or do you find that for the amount of weight they hold, majority of your first impressions are completely inaccurate, most often polar opposite of what the person actually ends up being like? All the time you say? ME TOO! :):P Lol but seriously, I find it to be a reoccurring theme in my life to the point where I no longer have any faith in my ability to judge someone based on a whole 45 second conversation. It should come as no surprise that because of all these flawed readings, I wake up one day to find that all these people I thought I had figured out have actually been crazy psychos the whole time. Woe is me.
Prehistoric survival depended solely on this first-impression phenomenon. Believed to be generated in a very primitive area of the brain, the ability to produce these split-second judgements is what instructed our ancestors to run away from that ridiculously large, mangy-looking cat with teeth 7 inches long. But things are different now. Nothing is as black and white as it was thousands of years ago, nothing today can be placed into categories "good" vs "bad" anymore. Our habits and way of life has changed since the simple days of loin-clothes and cave paintings, so doesn't it make sense that we try and change this deeply entrenched impulsive behaviour to a thought process more fitting for this day and age?
Apparently, nothing is as it seems. There will always be things you will not know, there will always be hidden motives, there will always be room for doubt in your mind. Or so you think anyways. Why? We're just not a very trustworthy (and therefore not a trusting) species anymore. We've been conditioned to assume the worst in others and question everything. Barack Obama has been president for almost two and a half years and all of a sudden people don't believe he was born in America... jeez people SERIOUSLY?? It doesn't take much to sow seeds of doubt in our 21st century minds. This being said, how reliable can a five minute conversation with a stranger be? In a time where we pay people to play different, believable roles (aka actors), it seems completely naive to allow yourself to form a permanent perception about someone, in a whole 5 minutes. THATS WHY WE NEED DETAILS PEOPLE!!
These details I'm referring to come from archived experiences we share with these strangers. This collection of information from different contexts allows us to make a much more informed judgement of the person. It doesn't seem fair to the qualified person, who just bombed his job interview because he found out his mother has cancer, to not give him the opportunity to show what he is really about, just because you (as the employer) thinks he's displaying a careless attitude. Makes sense? We, being the intelligent life forms we are, just need to start making much more educated decisions/judgements about everything really lol, but especially people.
I'm not ignorant fellow readers. I understand that in our fast-paced, untrustworthy world, its impractical to wait around to collect the right amount of information to make a sound judgement. Just wishful thinking I guess. This post is really just something to consider when you're dismissing that punk kid with shifty eyes, lip and eyebrow piercings, tattoos covering his arms and hair a bit more purple then you would have liked. He has a story to tell. And you may have just passed up that life-changing, epiphanic moment we're ALL waiting for.
*from an email I've recently received*
Apparently, nothing is as it seems. There will always be things you will not know, there will always be hidden motives, there will always be room for doubt in your mind. Or so you think anyways. Why? We're just not a very trustworthy (and therefore not a trusting) species anymore. We've been conditioned to assume the worst in others and question everything. Barack Obama has been president for almost two and a half years and all of a sudden people don't believe he was born in America... jeez people SERIOUSLY?? It doesn't take much to sow seeds of doubt in our 21st century minds. This being said, how reliable can a five minute conversation with a stranger be? In a time where we pay people to play different, believable roles (aka actors), it seems completely naive to allow yourself to form a permanent perception about someone, in a whole 5 minutes. THATS WHY WE NEED DETAILS PEOPLE!!
These details I'm referring to come from archived experiences we share with these strangers. This collection of information from different contexts allows us to make a much more informed judgement of the person. It doesn't seem fair to the qualified person, who just bombed his job interview because he found out his mother has cancer, to not give him the opportunity to show what he is really about, just because you (as the employer) thinks he's displaying a careless attitude. Makes sense? We, being the intelligent life forms we are, just need to start making much more educated decisions/judgements about everything really lol, but especially people.
I'm not ignorant fellow readers. I understand that in our fast-paced, untrustworthy world, its impractical to wait around to collect the right amount of information to make a sound judgement. Just wishful thinking I guess. This post is really just something to consider when you're dismissing that punk kid with shifty eyes, lip and eyebrow piercings, tattoos covering his arms and hair a bit more purple then you would have liked. He has a story to tell. And you may have just passed up that life-changing, epiphanic moment we're ALL waiting for.
*from an email I've recently received*
It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:
Which of these candidates would be your choice?
Which of these candidates would be your choice?
- Candidate A associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
- Candidate B was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.
- Candidate C is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.
Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler
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