CONTEXT
Noun: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.
We’ve seemingly lost it!! Context…that simple concept is essential to understand everything around us clearly. We do not live in a vacuum. Very few things happen independently of anything else. Whatever happens, it does so in a set of physical, emotional, or spiritual circumstances. Context is the thing that helps us gain perspective, but perspective is itself a subjective term. Circumstance, which helps us index an incident, is open to interpretation; hence, what we know as “context” can become confusing based on whoever is interpreting it.
But circumstance and context should be easy to discern, especially in today’s world of cellphone cameras virtually making everyone a field reporter. Incidents that seem clearly documented with clear video evidence are still viewed and argued from opposite viewpoints. How can an incident, clearly documented with full visual availability, be interpreted so differently? Everyone’s eyes see the same thing, but the brain, responsible for interpreting what the eyes see, takes over, and the controversy begins.
People See What They Want to See
So why such a wide discrepancy in the interpretation of the same event? Enter the human behavior factor. Our eyes are simply a window to the brain, and the brain interprets events based on the emotional state the brain is residing in. However, what has to be ruled out are the instances of psychosis that take an interpretation of events too far outside the limits of reality. For example, January 6th shows a clear documented indication of rioting, destruction of property, public defecation, and urination. Some psychotic interpretations have suggested that it was just an average visitation day. Those interpretations, so far outside the common sense of reality, serve no purpose in defining the value of context in interpretation.
Eliminating psychotic interpretations and staying with plausible but widely varying interpretations are the causes of the wide variance. Note: highly psychotic interpretations exist in most emotionally and spiritually charged events, so they have to be ruled out for any valuable examination to exist.
