We Make Huge Mistakes In Perception [by Jennifer Michael Hecht]
Can we talk a little more about the gym?
First let me remind you of the weirdness of perception and the human capacity to be deceived.
Only about twenty-five years ago many adult Americans, most of us really, believed that if we could get past our moral compunctions about it, it might be great for us if we blew up the USSR with nuclear bombs. Sure there would be some danger to us, but we've tested bombs, you could strategically blow up what counted for the USSR and the rest of the world would live on. And as we saw it, only 25 years ago, the rest of the world wanted to live in peace, liked things sort of the way they were, or anyway were too small and weak to menace us in any way. We could bomb the slavs and suffer no more. Forget the defense budget. We could finally use our surplus food and energy to build schools and hospitals, homes, parks, and museums.
We completely missed the fact that people too nuclear-powerless to menace us could, in fact, menace the hell out of us.
We might have killed millions just because we didn't notice this rather obvious truth. Bombing the slavs into oblivion would not have made us safer. It was never true. That whole fantasy was mistaken.
You know what, I'm going to leave you with this and come back later to talk more about the gym. Just let's try to unhinge a little with this one. We make huge mistakes in perception.
Love,
Jennifer
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