[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #83 MORE PROBLEMS WITH FACTS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #83

December 31, 2021

Facts #11

 

MORE PROBLEM WITH FACTS

 

With this article, I am concluding this series on Critical Thinking about
Facts.  With the new year, there will be a new series.  In the last post I
noted that facts become really problematic when- 

           They are out of context so that there's no way to evaluate them.

           They are partial and many things which need to be said about
them are not said, but left out.

           They are anonymous and not owned by whoever identified or
created the fact.

           They are coded in vague, abstract, evaluative terminology rather
than descriptive empirical language (sensory-based language).

 

Another problem concerns the fluidity versus immutability of a given fact.
Generally, the word fact carries an unstated implication, namely, that it is
immutable.  "This is the way it is, it is a fact."  Yet while some facts are
immutable (they don't change), many are fluid.  They change.  And they are
facts which are more likely to change over time.

 

Sometimes a factual statement asserts something that just is, something that
is immutable.  It is something that you cannot change or alter, something
that is a given.  "Like what?" you may ask.  Well, like the old joke, "There
are two inevitables in life-death and taxes."  Factually, you and I are
going to die.  Factually, every person who has ever been born before the
last generation has died.  That's an immutable fact that you cannot gainsay.
Argue against it all you will, rage against it, protest by raising your fist
to the heavens-and the fact remains.

 

There are many more.  When my wife was trying to geographically locate
herself in the Grand Valley, she asked, "Which way is east?"  I pointed to
the Mesa Mountain, "There, from our perspective, the sun rises on that
mountain."  "Every day?" she asked.  "Yes, unless the earth starts wobbling
in it orbit, we will see the sunrise there."  An immutable fact that is also
gruesome is this: Jump off a skyscraper and you will die.
Immutability-that's just the way it is.

 

Other facts can be changed.  Until the invention of the airplane, it was a
fact that "man cannot fly."  Now we can.  Once it was a fact, "If you get
polio, you will be crippled for the rest of your life."  Now that is no
longer the case.  Facts about polio have changed.

 

What then do we do when we cannot change the facts-when it is immutable?
What do we do when we have to live with certain facts.  "Yes, your son was
in an accident and died."  "Yes, your job has been eliminated so there's no
longer a place for you here."  The answer is simple is say, but hard to
live.  Change your thinking.  Change the way you have been interpreting
things, adopt a new attitude about it, and use your meaning-making skills to
attribute more resourceful and ecological meanings to the facts that cannot
be changed.

 

For the immutable fact, change your thinking from rejection to acceptance.
Meta-state yourself first of all with acceptance.  If it is inevitable, part
of the way things are, and outside of your control, then access and apply
the magic of acceptance to it.  This will enable you to acknowledge the fact
as real and part of reality.  You are living the serenity prayer when you
do.

 

Next, change your thinking by altering the meaning, that is, change the
frame.  As you identify the old frame, shift the frame until you find one
that contributes to your well-being and vitality (see Mind-Lines: Lines for
Changing Minds for a book on that subject).   Now you can reframe a fact by
giving it meanings that enable you to keep learning and developing.  Since
you are the meaning-maker and you have an extremely wide range of meanings
that you can create and adapt you have a tremendous capacity, to frame and
deframe meaning until you find those that will empower you and bring out
your best.

 

Just because a fact is immutable, that's not the end of the story.  You can
make it the beginning of a new story.  If you know how to live inside-out,
then you can treat the immutable fact as one of reality's constraints that
invites you to use your creative thinking to figure out how to best deal
with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

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134324 NeuroSemantics Inside Out Front Cover

 

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