- And do you hear when you ‘hear’?
We all hear with our ears, of course. And see with our eyes. But the eye is not just a camera that merely transmits images, any more than the ear is simply a microphone that merely feeds soundbites to the brain. It’s much more complicated than that. So, do we really hear and see? Well it depends.
Events keep happening all around us, and we observe them using our eyes and ears, the resulting data being interpreted and becoming part of the working memory. This information after further processing gets stored in the long-term memory – let’s call it ‘storage’. The working memory and the storage continually interact with one another; and it so happens that what you already know (storage) controls what subsequently comes (or doesn’t come) into the working memory. The ears and eyes therefore are controlled by the storage regarding what part of the data is reported and how it is interpreted in the working memory. This is done by employing switches and filters of different sorts. That’s how what’s already there controls what comes next.
This, of course, is not a fault in the system. It’s a safety mechanism to prevent the mind from being overwhelmed by too much information. However, the same safety apparatus can be, and often is, misused by one’s mind to prevent one from facing harsh realities of life, such as the possibility of been wrong on something.
Young men often complain that they are unable to win people over even though their arguments are sound while those from the opposite camp can easily be shown to be faulty
So it is that we ‘hear’ a lot of arguments that lead to conclusions that we don’t want to subscribe to, without actually hearing them. The storage just keeps them out of the working memory; or allows just so much of it that is easy to refute, or that’s even ridiculous; so that we can keep on our merry ways. This is often subconscious, in that the person is not aware of this self-deception. One has the ear and all the necessary apparatus, but the information gets bypassed and is not processed as it should be. It’s as if one is hearing with something else.
Young men often complain that they are unable to win people over even though their arguments are sound while those from the opposite camp can easily be shown to be faulty. Unfortunately, this is one of those issues where the beauty often lies in the eyes of the beholder. That’s because humans are not automatic washing machines strictly governed by logic. They usually come with a lot of emotional baggage and prejudices of all sorts.
One of the extraordinary things about the human brain is that in a state of nature it doesn’t rest on doubt. It keeps working away non-stop trying to reconcile the different packets of information it receives. Doubt is an indication that something doesn’t add up: either the new information has been reported/interpreted wrongly, or what was already there needs a re-examination. This is the reason young children ask so many questions. They can be a real pain in the neck, as all parents and teachers would vouch. Most of our social institutions unfortunately curb this attitude and as children grow they start losing this habit. Most often they themselves acquiesce in the process because continuously trying to make sense of things is hard work. The easier option for many then is to sweep ‘disturbing’ things under the carpet and pretend that everything’s all right. This is peace of mind bought very dearly; and an analogy would be disconnecting the wires of a smoke alarm so that it won’t squeal any more. Yes, it won’t, but you can also end up getting the whole house burned to the ground.
The good news is that the above process can be reversed, albeit with great effort. It amounts to re-inculcation of the habit of mental hard-work; and like all good habits it’s slow and painstaking. For while it’s true that at any given moment the storage controls what comes into the working memory, the storage itself can be changed, bit by bit, over time. This is akin to the free-will/predestination issue, where humans are constrained by the state of their decision-making apparatus in any given decision they make; but have some freedom to change – bit by bit – that decision-making apparatus itself.
The penalty for not hearing when ‘hearing’ is that one continues to believe in silly things. This is punishment enough for some. For those of a more practical disposition, it should be pointed out that it’s our beliefs and opinions that sooner or later become actions. It always pays to hear and see.
