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"... you always have to start from where you are!"

-- Robert LeFevre


Lesson 15 - Conflict of Opinion Print E-mail

 

This natural difference in perception, opinion, and belief is where the real problem of human interrelationships occurs.

Since every one of us is certain that our beliefs are correct, it follows that every one of us who finds someone else holding a different view will conclude that the other is wrong.

In a sense, all human arguments, and all our laws, and all our crimes and wars, as well as all of our productive and constructive actions, stem from differences in view. We do not all do the same things at the same time, or for the same reasons. Nor would it be feasible for us to do so.

We all live in our own egocentric world of perception and action. In this context, our personal "world" will overlap with and influence the perceptions and actions of others, even as their worlds overlap with and influence ours.

When, however, we find another person acting in a manner that varies in some fashion from the way we ourselves would act under similar circumstances (our actions, of course, stemming from our conclusions and beliefs and perceptions), we generally conclude that the other person is wrong, and that we had better do something about it!

This is why men and women resort first to argument, and finally to force. We are not content to let reality become apparent to whichever of us holds the opinion that is not in accordance with it.

Since we each have concluded that we know many facts (the nature of things), we often proceed to act as if we knew all the facts. We act to inflict our views upon those who have come to different conclusions, and who hold different beliefs.

 

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Fundamentals of Liberty

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