When I was in the advertising business for seventeen years I discovered that advertising was based on the perception of reality not the reality of the product or business.
Politicians and media repeat something over and over again, even though it may be a misrepresentation of the truth, and people start to believe it. The accusation of a crime often last longer than the guilt or innocence of the person.
I have also learned that if I react to a misrepresentation or partial truth they often reinforced the misrepresentation or partial truth.
Although I have learned these lessons over and over again I still fall into the trap of reacting to misrepresentation or partial true accusation of myself.
Someone came over today who I deeply respected. We have some common acquaintances and when he started to tell me how they view the issue of teaching war at local Catholic campus as a conflict between an individual at Marquette I started to be defensive, again falling into the stereotype that I was contributing to this perception.
Now I have been made aware that are people who have tried to make me, the messenger, the issue and thus ignore the message Close the School of Army at this Catholic University. I am also aware of how, by being defensive, I have contributed to this stereotype. However, I was surprised to hear it from this person who did not know much about the 42 history of this issue of military resistance at this school, most of which I was not involved in.
After the person left I felt obliged to search my thousands of page on my web site and my many emails for the name of the person I am accused of personally attacking on the issue. The web site search only revealed 13 mentions of this person and they all were in public letters addressed to the person in their professional capacity at the school and they were respectful. There were no negative remarks or blaming comments.
The fact that I need to check out any remarks about the person that people say I have made the issue personal to reveals the fact that I am still defensive.
Perception of reality can be used to sell a product or marginalize a message. I do not have much control over that. But I do have control not to react to this perception and stay positive to all persons. One of my favorite definitions of the nonviolence of Gandhi was by Judith Brown in a book when she said: Gandhi defines his Satyagraha or creative nonviolence as “striving nonviolently to the point of sacrifice rather than fighting to attain one’s vision of truth.”
I would add: “striving nonviolently to the point of sacrifice rather than fighting for or against a perception of reality.”
Comments
(:commentboxchrono:)
