Have you ever had an "eye opening" moment?

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by MacGyver1968, Jan 12, 2017.

  1. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

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    Have you ever had a moment in your life where a belief that you held (maybe naively) was suddenly and drastically changed? Maybe it was political, or personal, or professional, or something else. I'd like to share an example from my own life.

    When I was a teenager in highschool, I just assumed that everything I saw on the news, and read in the newspapers was true and un-biased. I had no reason to believe any differently. But, that belief was changed with one (pretty insignificant) event. My highschool football team made it to the state championships. A local tv news channel sent out a reporter to do a "puff piece" on the event. I witnessed first hand the reporter interviewing our football coach and a few of the players. I went home that night and eagerly sat through the news broadcast to get to our story.

    When the piece aired, I was dismayed. The questions that the reporter had asked had been edited out, and replaced by "voiceover" questions....and some of the questions were completely different than the questions asked in the live interview. They used the footage of our coach answering one question, and through the use of editing, made it sound like he was answering a completely different question. It really didn't matter, it was just a "puff piece" and it didn't make the coach sound like he was saying something he was not. But it opened my eyes. If news reporters are willing to do this with a "puff piece" that's meaningless, what are they willing to do with stories that really matter? I've been cynical ever since.

    I'd like to hear other examples of "eye opening" experiences from other members.
     
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  3. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Well there haven't been many,sadly (good question though).

    One I remember was the ritual where "new boys" got ragged on the first day of the new school.

    All of us knew what was coming and ,through reluctant compliance got through the procedure without harm

    One of us though refused the treatment and fought off his numerous assailants.

    I was sure it was a matter of time and he would be processed like the rest of us but,no they had to give up on him☺
     
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  5. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    long ago and far away, circa 1967
    when I was at the signal school for the army
    I had missed the morning formation
    and was strolling diagonally across the parade field on my way to class
    when an obnoxious twit of a major took it upon himself to get in my face and demand to know why i was not in formation
    by then, I had adopted the ready answer "No excuse sir"
    He then demanded that I salute him
    so i started to do so
    Then
    I paused
    and said:
    "Cub scouts salute with 2 fingers", and I did so
    "Boy scouts salute with 3 fingers", and I did so
    "Explorer scouts salute with 4 fingers", and I did so
    "And, in the army, we salute with all 5----(pause)------------------- OH MY GOD, I've been programed!"

    And, the silly twit stared at me for a moment, then turned and walked away.

    God bless his rotten soul.
     
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  7. Kristoffer Giant Hyrax Valued Senior Member

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    The realization that even though I'm technically a more proficient guitarist than most, I'm not necessarily a better musician.

    That one fucked me over for a while.

    Now I just work on getting more expressive in my own way, while learning new stuff.
     
  8. Dr_Toad It's green! Valued Senior Member

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    I have the opposite problem. I'm a better musician than many, but I can't make it talk to my fingers, or my voice either, these days... Old can suck some.

    Completely off-topic, but my post number 1597 is prime. Do any of y'all get a "sense" of primeness in a number?

    Edit: One eye-opening moment came when I was free-climbing. I reached for a hold on a rock that had a mouse on it. I jerked my hand back, then realized what a fucked up move that was since I was 300' up Seneca Rock with nothing but treetops below me. That's the last thing I remember.

    True story.

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  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I feel silly for this, but I don't actually get it.

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    I don't know army rituals, so I don't know what parts are ritual and what parts are you winging it.
     
  10. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    It's complicated in it's simplicity. A major is an O4(the low rung on the ladder of field ranks), I was a private E1. Above me there were 8 E ranks, then 4 O ranks including the twit.

    Everyone who outranks you can tell you what to do.
    (I wasn't exactly enjoying that.)
     
  11. Tachotrickser Registered Member

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    11
    The saying " eye openening moment" I have heard in Germany before
    " mir sind die Augen geöffnet"

    And it means something like: now I know, what's going on, and can not be deceived or cheated at.....
     
  12. river

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    17,307
    When I understood ; the interwoven complexities of everything .
     
  13. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    It sounds almost ridiculously pedantic, but the most apparent opening of my eyes seems to have occurred when I finally recognized that "eye opening experiences" are, generally speaking, overrated.

    That is to say, like "karma", I hear much about life-changing revelations, realizations, epiphanies, bolts of lightning, and other spontaneous profound wisdom. Naturally not all of it is wise. Or correct. Or, really, especially new.

    Then again, those are the negatives; growing up we had a head shrinker on the radio who pushed a study arguing that it took ten positive experiences to balance out a negative. But somewhere between the aphorism about learning more and knowing less, to the one, and the self-assured wisdom people feel―("Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall!")―to the other, I might also suggest that they aren't so much eye opening moments. For instance, figuring a major flaw in my human rights regard required a couple years in a context that, arguably, I had not experienced. The end result is that while there's not much I can do for a certain person I know, and probably never was much of an opportunity to stave off certain outcomes, at least I can spare my friend this or that particular contributing frustration that we used to wander through together. That is to say, somewhere between many and most will agree that we had a deeply flawed relationship, and that various grievances either way seem legitimate, but that's the problem. Remaining inside the former construct meant delivering the same indignity onto someone else in the future.

    And having dealt with my new outlook over a period of years, such that I don't consider it new anymore―it is simply my outlook at present―the thing is that while no human being, including myself, will ever be perfect, at least I'm not behaving in this particular way, anymore, and no longer participating in that particular pollution and subtle poisoning↱ of the human endeavor. And some folks for certain would think it was shocking to hear another say he wishes to never treat another person that way again, but it turns out they're often even more unsettled when they discover that what I'm describing is widely considered pretty normal behavior between people.

    And to a certain degree the critique is true. But it's only appropriate within a particular framework, and it was only during examination from outside the framework that the problem becomes glaringly apparent. To the one, we're not leaving each other; to the other, at that point we probably won't, because the daily grind of hearing how inadequate you are hasn't driven you out yet, and part of living day to day with the person you allegedly love is hearing how much of a goddamn disappointment you are.

    I know. Sounds awful, doesn't it? The litany would crucify my friend. And there is a litany that would probably crucify me. And I can't tell you why my friend lied to me once upon a time when we had a chance to break that cycle. But we went through it for another six years, at least, before the truth emerged that we should have separated years before. To the one, I don't get to ask for a do-over, and that restriction is both objectively practical, as time marches on, and principled, as well, given that before it was all over we issued joint effect unto the world that we cannot, will not, and would never take back. To the other, whatever the desperate reason for trying to preserve a loathed and doomed intimate and domestic relationship, it's not really a matter of blame. It isn't quite fair to say I won't do that next time because that framework is retired and being disassembled, and there won't be a next time. But I don't get to pat myself on the back and call it wisdom. The process took a long time, did tremendous human damage, and, as it stands now, does not preclude damage to others through variations on the theme. If my eyes are somehow opened, I must also keep them open; specific vigilance against particular outcomes is a perpetual endeavor. Toward which point I might also suggest there is a difference between opening my eyes and figuring out just what I'm seeing.
     
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  14. cluelusshusbund + Public Dilemma + Valued Senior Member

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    When i realized that free-will was an illusion.!!!
     
  15. river

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    When I realized how little most know and care to know .
     
  16. Dr_Toad It's green! Valued Senior Member

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    When you understand "the opening of the eyes".
     
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  17. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    21,634
    Day I realized how calculus worked. Same thing about finally understanding Maxwell's Equations. One day, while teaching, I had the realization that you have to tell different people completely different things for them to get the same message - that was a game-changer for me as a teacher.
     
  18. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    I know for sure that I must have had several, because I can remember back to when I held completely and fundamentally different views on things, did not even comprehend or hold in awareness things I take for granted now, and so forth. And there is no continuum connecting these views - there had to have been a discontinuity, a reframing event. But I can't recall a single one.

    Maybe they happen during sleep.
     
  19. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I find that personality-changing events don't occur like a lightning bolt, they occur in small increments, like peeling layers off an onion.
    And yeah, sometimes it's your subconscious that connects the dots behind the scenes.

    To mix a metaphor or two...
     
  20. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    I've never had an eye-opening moment in the sense of a Matrix-style "red pill" moment, in which I suddenly discover that everything I believed was wrong and reality was in fact entirely different than what I'd believed it to be. I can't even recall any similar revelatory moments regarding individual strongly-held fundamental beliefs.

    With me, big intellectual changes like that are a lot more gradual and incremental. I might start questioning something, start paying more attention to alternative views about it, and then kind of imperceptibly shift over to some new way of thinking about whatever it is.
     
  21. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    I've gone thru like 3 paradigm shifts in my own lifetime. They occurred gradually as I opened myself up to new ideas and information. Up to about 20 I embraced the Christian worldview. I fully believed God was a presence in my life. I also believed in demons. Then thru my 20's and up thru my 30's I embraced the science world view of a materialistic secular universe, albeit with mystical implications thrown in from Jungian psychology and existentialism. Then from 40 up to today I adopted a more dualist view of reality, questioning materialism and opening myself up to Taoism, the paranormal, and ufos. Today that's where I sit, in a reality full of mystery and wonder veiled in an veneer of discrete 3 dimensional substances and objects. It is a jaw-dropping and an eye-opening that I undergo every morning, when I leap out of bed and confront my day.
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2017
  22. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I had an eye-opening moment when I realized my parents could disagree with me, but that didn't make me wrong.
     
  23. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    Recently, I was walking in a straight line, on familiar terrain and trying to get to my destination. Then, next thing I was lost. Feeling trapped somewhere between conscious and unconscious thought, I said to myself that if I could only wake up from this dream I could get back on track. Then, I woke up in bed. In my dream I had imagined I was dreaming? It was an eye opening experience.
     

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