research shows: “we agree on much more than we thought we do”
I am not vaccinated against the corona virus. Perhaps you are. This could divide us into two groups of people who can’t understand each other.
You could call me a Conspiracy Theorist. I could call you a Conspiracy Denier. Or, we can try to understand each other and continue being friends. Fellow humans who inhabit the same wonderful planet. Which is more than enough reason for getting along with each other well.
If we find ourselves in these two different groups then my perspective on this situation is: we adhere to different belief systems. Almost like a religion.
Some while ago we have chosen to believe in certain assumptions. Since then we keep believing our own belief system. It is unlikely that either of us will change our beliefs. What members of one belief system call “scientific facts”, the others refuse as “wrong or unproven assumptions”. We even share the same terms and similar logic in our explanations. The difference is just the set of assumptions that we have chosen to believe.
Fortunately we agree on much more than we thought we do.
For example, I assume that we all believe in, and aspire, health.
In our belief systems we hold different assumptions about what is needed to achieve health. Some people smoke. Some exercise sports. Some people smoke and exercise. We have different approaches to health but we do agree on the general concept of health, and that health is an important value.
Similar case for solidarity. Like every human, we all want to contribute to the wellbeing of our society’s members. Based on our own assumptions, we all believe in our own ways of achieving solidarity.
The map to the right highlights some values that we have in common.
We may not agree on the corona pandemic. But we do agree on values like solidarity, trust and health.
In my eyes this represents a lot of agreement.
I am deeply grateful for all the people in my life who value friendship and human connection higher than recent medical beliefs. I believe that we must stay united.
Thank you, my friends!
Revision history
- 2021-12 first draft (initial title “Pandemic Belief Systems” with more details of my personal opinion about the pandemic question, and therefore less balanced)
- 2022-07-15 published (new title focussing on friendship, now hopefully well balanced)
Copyright © 2020, 2021, 2022 Boran Gögetap boran@goegetap.name; Knowledgegraph (boxes and lines) maintained in public Jira project; Diagrams created by KTS (Knowledge Transformation System) and GraphViz; HTML created by Jekyll; This paper licensed under GNU Affero General Public License
Touring Test 
Boran, I love your post. Thank you. Hope to see you soon. Best, Reza
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