This very same method of reasoning took place in the minds of those who made decisions concerning the September 11th attack. People began to try and construct logical explanations based on their past experiences. They began to reason that since, in the past, the Al Queda organization had organized movements against governments and since they were an unethical group and so on, the Al Queda must have organized the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon. This fit in logically because of several factors including the fact that some of the suspects were confirmed to be “sleepers” sent to the US to await a time when they would be called to action (Sept. 11 News). People also use this method of thinking and viewing the world even in the smallest decisions and thoughts made.
Historians are constantly faced with the issue of seeing through the ‘filters’ that people view the world through. Historians have the hard task of looking at many different points of view in order to try and somewhat accurately recreate history. Historians have long realized that people view things differently based on their different ethical standpoints, past experiences, and the history of their time. Their task is to try and see through the filter to see things as they really where (Writing History). Take for example the history of the military action at My Lai. The Americans and Vietnamese both had different tales of what happened at My Lai (Something Dark…). Now historians face the difficult task of trying to clear away the screens people viewed the whole operation through and reconstruct what actually happened.
The ethical filter that people often view things through is often one of the hardest to ‘see through.’ Everyone in the world has different ethical views. Terrorists have ethical beliefs and views that are vastly different from the beliefs we have. People who can commit murder without any remorse have different ethical perspectives than we do. It is very difficult to get through this ‘filter’ to the reality behind it. Even then, you are not really getting through the ‘ethical filter’ you are just changing things so that they are viewed in light of your own ethical beliefs. So to get past ethical views is extremely difficult.
People also view things and make decisions and judgments on past history, both their own and of their culture, race, religion etc. The histories of each individual person are different and so each person views things in different ways. People tend to look at either the history of their own background or the past history of what they are looking at when they are formulating thoughts. These histories can affect their decisions due to things like prejudices, past conclusions, what they were told by authority etc.
A good example of how all the different ways of making judgments can be tied together is to consider communism. Soviet Russia was a communist state for decades and they were managing okay with communism. Healthcare was free for citizens, the citizens enjoyed a lot of benefits, the Govt. could edit out harmful materials from the local news etc. Then when the U.S. became a major power they saw that the Soviets were different and noticed only and enlarged to negative points of communism. The U.S. saw through filters of past tyranny, unfair treatment and the recently acquired lens of a democracy. They looked on the Communists as an evil ‘government’ and went through all sorts of measures to stop communism. The communists however, did not, for the majority of them, see any real problem with communism. They were content to live under its rule, even though some of their ‘freedoms’, as America would define it, were repressed (Russia and Communism). Now, because we have changed the worlds ‘lenses’ through which they view communism, there is only one major country still under communist control, and that is China, the most populated country and also one of the leading product selling countries. So the ‘filters’ that people began to view communism through, have hidden the other truths about communism.
Another good example of how peoples ‘filters’ can change the way reality is portrayed is with cloning. Cloning according to people using ethics as an area of knowledge is unethical. They say that you would not only be messing around with God’s creations but that you would be creating a person just so that you could improve the life of another person. A scientist would look at the situation as one of immense benefit. If people could have clones created with the exact same metabolic structure you could easily perform transplants of organs and tissues and blood etc. This would improve the quality of life for humans from a scientific standpoint but destroy is from an ethical standpoint.
As we have seen, when people view the world and events and make decisions and choices and have even simple thoughts about something, they do so through a sort of ‘filter’ of past experiences and past decisions, their own ethical views, history, and science and try to tie things together logically. Everyone views things with their own biases and their own personal experiences. This is a key concept to grasp in order to find out how things really are. One must understand that reality is hidden behind the ‘filters’ that people view the world through. It is only once one has attempted to see through the filters that other people judge the world through, that one can understand what actually happened.
Works Cited:
Author Unknown. News Archives: September 11th News: The day that changed the World. 06/01/03. http://www.september11news.com/
Dowling, Mike., "The Electronic Passport to Russia and Communism," available from http://www.mrdowling.com/707russia.html; Internet; updated Saturday, May 12, 2001
“Something dark and Bloody” Melbourne Sunday Observer. Ronald Haeberle 14 December 1992. http://www.asiapac.org.fj/cafepacific/resources/aspac/viet.html
Writing History: From Students to Scholars. PBS News Organization. 06/1/03 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/general/plagiarism.html
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