As humans, we're hard pressed to not become more and more biased / cliquish as we age. Why?
Advancing forward year to year inevitably compiles situational biases as life is lived out. And even the most high-spirited of us, whilst cornered, will divulge their private prejudices (if oh so subtlety).
How might one resist this inevitability / slow down it's wane (infection) on our grey matter?
-------------------------
I believe your greatest weapon against this is curiosity. A true commitment to staying genuinely curious towards other human beings, their lives and viewpoints. And this curiosity must be a driver of questions, and definitely NOT to incriminate by proving contrast (between yourself & someone else) but instead as my young friend Bobby would wield it.
Bobby is the son of one of our church elders. He's in his late 20s, but has the intelligence / emotional maturity of a 10-12 year old. As such, life for him is fresh and new every day because he doesn't have the intelligence (confidence / obliqueness / memory) of an adult. And Bobby isn't one of these shy "kids". Instead, he's vibrant and full of life, constantly on the edge of a demure adolescent outlook though never achieving that milestone.
Bobby never meets a stranger, and if he has any inkling that someone's willing to engage with him, he's going to work hard to satiate his curiosity by interrogating. But due to him having the outlook of a 10-12 year old, it's readily apparent that there's no underlying self-seeking motive within his approach. Instead, he's genuinely programmed to learn (what his limited brain will allow), and though it can be disconcerting at times to always be on the receiving end of that, Bobby's approach stands to reason for me as a Christian.
-------------------------
Removing oneself from social media is another step towards maintaining a point of view that's centered on wholesale love in its purest form.
Westerners wholeheartedly put their faith in corporations. Moreso than in any other institution (think government, family). And this faith is very difficult to shake unless longstanding corporate brands begin to habitually disappoint and therefore lose their coveted brand luster.
Technology companies, due to the almost miraculously sophisticated work they do, gain and maintain corporate credence much faster than their Blue Chip brethren. For a software application / online "world" appears light years more mystical than a washing machine or automobile.
Therefore, we get lazy as consumers and hooked into "worshipping at the thrones" of these massively overvalued social media companies by giving them enormous amounts of attention / time. Attention / time with digital creations that our minds simply weren't designed to handle / engage with sans tremendously negative influence. For social media's one purpose is to generate strife / dissonance amongst its users (primarily through envy). And this strife isn't, of course, face-to-face. Instead, it's one step removed since it's solely catalogued online where avatars represent and, in turn, tribes are reinforced.
Are there good intentions behind many of those who engage in social media? I think so. But social media's main goal is to deeply hook with the one goal of "learning" as much as they can catalog about their billions of users. For this data is very, very valuable in terms of actively manipulating via advertising.
-------------------------
When you purchase a washing machine, you bring it home, plug it into the wall and start washing clothes. It's a closed loop transaction. If the machine performs / holds up to your satisfaction, you may choose to purchase another from the same corporation years into the future. As such, there's a clear divide between you and the corporation since your decision to buy was one and done.
Imagine a washing machine that's free and seemingly the most sophisticated available, but since it costs you nothing, the corporation that provided it has full discretion to gather all manner of data about its use by your catalogued household. And that corporation readily sells that data to other corporate entities from every conceivable corner of the free enterprise system. At the same time, the clothes you wash in the machine (along with all the inevitable soiling therein) become entangled / enmeshed (& vice versa) in light of your chosen washing machine Jerusalem.
Hence, if you've got a ton of dirty laundry to clean, that amounts to an awful lot of granular details being loosed into the plumbing at various pressurized degrees. Inevitably, your clothes, because they're "communal cleaned", don't look nor wear as they did prior to washing, and that's due to the residue / bleed over that's impossible to avoid with the free washing machine / its communally plumbed system.
But over time, and due to the (seemingly overnight) billions of free washing machine user base, you quickly grow into wearing clothes that look, feel and smell like everyone else's (solely within your Jerusalem, right?). For they're "everywhere / being worn by everybody".
And, oh my goodness, let's not forget that the washing machine is free!
-------------------------
Earlier this year, I had dinner with my aforementioned, low intelligence friend, Bobby. Unfortunately, my work day (it was a Friday) was the absolute worst it's ever been (since coming to work for my parents in 2013). How I wish, in light of this, that I'd simply postponed our time together.
But instead, I followed through, meeting Bobby as we'd planned in spite of my foul mood.
In light of my frustrating day, my tongue became sharper and sharper throughout the meal. I cut Bobby down easily with my cruel quips / "observations".
As you can imagine, my friend is easily confused by any form of sarcasm. As such, if he's a target to enough of it, he'll quickly shut down in frustration. By the time I had him back to his parents' abode, he was sealed tight (lipped).
From there, I drove to the Y (for an early evening swim) feeling like such the louse. For I knew that juncture would change the course of our friendship forever.
Yet, come Sunday morning, Bobby immediately made a beeline to Rob in order to let me know how he'd forgiven me for being such the asshole two days prior.
I remember thinking it was too soon. And it was. But Bobby valued the friendship / relationship more than his feelings. In other words, he put those aside - immediately - in light of lost time / opportunity if our friendship were to completely go south.
And I realize Bobby isn't a typical late 20s adult. Nonetheless, I can learn from him and his approach both as a curious bug and a forgiving, faithful companion.
As such, this is what I know. I must remember too steer clear of situational strife (to the best of my ability) prior to engaging with him or others in light of my tendency to be influenced negatively therein. For it truly does bleed over / change me, for the worse, from the inside out.
