Segmenting the Mind
In a previous article ("On Being Turned On"), I showed how a person's mind can get 'flipped' into another mode and referred to it as being turned on. When people are in a particular state they are often unable to see the situation in its real perspective. I also pointed out ("The Information Age") that the mind can get stuck in a groove. This is a related phenomenon and causes the same lack of perspective.
For example, the person susceptible to road rage who gets cut up at a road junction simply wants to antagonise the driver responsible and doesn't see them as a human being who can make mistakes. The teenage boy who fantasises about having sex with the woman walking in front of him doesn't see her as a human being with her own views, likes and dislikes. The scientist dissecting a flower doesn't see its beauty.
There's a story of a powerful Sultan who asked his advisers for something that would help to stabilise his moods. Something that would bring him up when he was down, and make him contemplative when he was up. His advisers went away and finally came back with a ring. On it was an inscription: "This, too, will pass".
It's important to keep things in perspective. Imagine this scenario:
A woman comes back from a hard day at work. She walks in through the front door with her bags of shopping and the place is a shambles. Her three kids have been home all day and have left their things all over the place. She's exhausted and as she puts her shopping down in the kitchen she is contemplating another hour or two of work cooking and cleaning. Her teenage son walks in.
"When's dinner ready mum?" he asks.
It's the last straw. She shouts at him that he's a lazy bum and he ought to help clean the place up; and she's been working all day and has better things to do then clean up after him; and no one else has to put up with what she does and he's a lazy good-for-nothing.
The son gets angry and storms out of the house. The doorbell rings. She goes to the door and sees a small crowd in the street. There's a car, its engine running. She runs out, dreading the worst. In front of the car there's something. A body. It's at a strange angle but she recognises the clothes. There's only one thought going through her mind: if he dies the last thing she would have said to him is that he was a lazy good-for-nothing.
