How Polarized Views Obstruct The Truth
Recently I penned a post off the back of an article released by the ABC detailing the compensation payout to Saba Button, the young girl who at 11 months old suffered severe brain and organ damage after receiving the fluvax shot in 2010. I’d written this on my personal page but with many requests to make it public, I thought I’d elaborate here - attempting to step with moderation into one of the most polarized conversations on Planet Earth. This article is not about vaccination however per se, it is about the dangers of extreme views that close ears off to any other aspect of a dialogue that is anything but our own. It is the ignorance that truly believes that we and we alone are right, that ignores diversity even when it may appear we are standing on the side of the one true knowledge. The fundamental reality is, that with the extraordinary breadth of diverse human experience, the sliding scale of learned wisdom, coupled with modern science, old science, racism, elitism, greed, personal agenda, personal patterns and the biggie, fear, there are as many truths as there are people in the world. The very nature of the clouded human condition from the bigger picture perspective, is to suffer and learn, suffer and learn a trillion times over until eventually we learn how not to suffer and to see things as they truly are. In spiritual terms: enlightened.
In the case of vaccines, for some they offer peace of mind, others deeply believe in the science, some are very connected and committed to the robustness of their immune system, others prefer not to mess with the natural order, some live in places where health services are very limited, others in countries with untrustworthy rulers and many, many are afraid - on both sides, for reasons that pertain to the complexity of their own learned experiences.
One of the great truths though that all of the world would agree on in different ways, is that blindly accepting things that have some kind of commerce attached, allows corruption to flourish. This corruption generally takes the form of cost cutting ie lesser quality components, unskilled and/or slave workers, research sacrifices etc. When it comes to something like vaccines, the dangers of commerce can have dire consequences. It’s a difficult dance to avoid, because who is going to make them without some financial motivation? And whilst it may be easy for some to say, ‘well don’t make them at all’ there are far too many vulnerable people with genuine concerns who would fight very strongly against this notion; for example someone who has experienced the loss of a loved one from a disease for which a vaccine is available. In the same way that Saba Button’s family would have a very strong case to be against vaccines due to direct and irrefutable experience.
One of the funny things about choosing the moderate voice, is that you put yourself at risk of being loathed by both sides whilst you stand like a lone wolf between two savage packs. But if we want to be heard by the side that really matters - the other side - it is the only position to take. It’s not about fence-sitting but it is about listening. It’s about accepting that every person has some reason why they strongly believe what they believe. It is the reason that needs to be addressed in order to stand even a chance of altering the belief. For many the belief will be so entwined with their identity that nothing but a deep life experience in the opposite direction will shake it but at the very least, we may have gained some insight that reduces our own frustration.
On a personal level, I have always had a deep love of science, in fact, a biologist is what I always thought I would be but then I began study in behavioural science which way back then, had little to do with evidential science such as neurology and everything to do with speculation. Yet still it was labelled science. I have practiced yoga for many years, which is beyond the measure of modern science but I am also a Yoga Therapist, trained by a Medical Doctor, which sits well within modern science. My own experiences have given me a very flexible understanding of science, one that rejects that all science can only be real if measured within the parameters of the dominant liberalism of the time. Even the passion and colour of science has been polarised, made rigid and effected by bias. In the case of vaccines, I appreciate the modern science, particularly around diseases that statistically are high risk with strong focus to the high risk faction but I also deeply respect that which is ‘beyond’ science. The ancient wisdoms. Science is constantly playing catch up on knowledge that has been around for thousands of years. Science has since the dawn of time called something heresy in one century and accepted it in the next. Science is an important factor in analytical understanding but it is not the only factor to the best understanding.
Deep listening is the best friend of genuine inquiry, even if we perceive the other side to be bigoted and corrupt or naive and ill-informed. If something polarises us, the first inquiry must be self-inquiry. Where did my beliefs come from? What makes them genuine? Who planted that seed?
We absolutely must move toward being a society that no longer lives in constant compensation of the ill-effects of poor health choices but to get there our quest must go searching for what is deeper. The reasons that a certain way of living or a belief exists. These are the true targets. Lessening trauma, listening to each other, leveling the playing field. Every time we take a hard-line, we are forcing someone else to fight for something that they very well may perceive to be a part of themselves. Like the foster child who thirty years later still eats dried two minute noodles in spite of their cardiac condition because that is the staple that helped them keep their younger siblings alive. They are not necessarily even fighting for the topic but for something underlying connected to an old part of their survival. Try to tear something like that away in a threatening manner and teeth will of course, snarl in response.
Individual rights around our own bodies should be an absolute. As should full responsibility and a disciplined commitment to a healthy life that leads to a safer society for everyone but that in itself is a sliding scale of possibility. One of the great grievances of those entrenched in lifestyles committed to good health is that they, with their diligence to good foods, exercise, good mental health, strong constitutions and rejection of rubbish, are paying the price via vaccines, lockdowns, fluoridation, tracing apps and the rest, of those who drink coke with their froot loops, smoke cigarettes, drink excessively, live a sedentary lifestyle etc. In that assumption of course lies unquestionable truth but also the reality that having understanding of good health, let alone how to achieve it, afford it or disentangle poor health from past trauma, is a privilege in itself - remembering that privilege doesn’t just relate to money: a child born into wealth but emotionally neglected, could fairly be considered as under privileged as a child born into poverty but deeply loved. These past experiences of challenge and survival are the seeds that grow into the spiky, tangled bougainvillea of our belief systems.
This may all seem like a big leap from being pro or anti vax but any strong belief is always connected to deeper emotive past experience, as well as often the persistent underlying terror of our own imminent and guaranteed death. This is a fundamental of human psychology. Perhaps a more effective step forward than the fight, is to soothe the fear, both that which exists within ourselves and with compassion, that which is unquestionably present in another. Until fears are made absent, it impossible to know what else may flourish.