I feel, that all human thought, can be categorized into two types. My claim is that this post will be valuable too you because, when we learn the two categories of human thought, we can more clearly understand human conflicts. With that understanding, we will fear human conflicts less, and navigate them to a peaceful resolution more efficiently. That is my claim, however honestly, I never really know if my theories are true or not, so just read them and listen to experts, as sharing ideas about sensitive topics like this is problematic, so believe other people, I encourage no one to take me seriously.
Here is the short, short version of this theory: all human thought fits into what I call the dreamer category, or the constructionist category. The names are not important. I will define what I mean with these words:
Dreamer: believing in something without worrying about the certainty if it being true.
Constructionist: Believing in something only when it is well known and established.
I've been thinking about this one for years. Everyone uses both of these attributes of thought, however it's common to have one dominate over the other in most human beings. Rarely do you meet someone who has both of them in a close balance.
Here is an example. An example of a dreamer, would be an artist. An artist doesn't need to understand why they create art, they just do it. Also, they don't always need to understand what their creation is going to be when they start their project. They have just learned to trust in their creative process, even without fully knowing the final outcome. They don't need to justify their art, and somehow prove that it will be useful, they just do it, and they will know what it is, after they know what it is.
The constructionist doesn't like to work without a good understanding of how something will work, and thus will have a good understanding of what the outcome will be. They trust in a creative process that is commonly done, and well understood. They don't like to take chances, because they want the result to be correct. An example of a profession that is dominantly filled with constructionist thinking is a school principle, or most engineers. Managers often think mostly in constructionist terms. To indulge in the unknown would mean unknown outcomes. To this mode of thinking, dreamer thinking is wasteful, and possibly dangerous, and a lot of the time it is right.
Where dreams often look at constructionists, and simply wrong, and/or limited in their perspective.
Both modes of thinking are not bad or wrong despite how they view each other. Rather they both serve a different purpose. The most important thing to understand is to have an increase capability created that didn't exist before, both disciplines of thought are needed.
One to step outside of what is known, and they other to correct for errors that will happen, because the unknown has been entered.
They both need each other, but they operate so differently, they will see each other as wrong. Both types of thought have the same goal, which is survival, yet their methods of obtaining survival are so different, they they often believe the other is an enemy. People who are dominate in one type or the other, are often very strong feeling about their way of thinking, and when others have a different way, it will seem like the other people just don't understand like they do.
So they don't get along sometimes. In the past few years, the political dialog has become more contentious because of people loosing a balance within themselves with the two ways of thinking. If someone becomes too abscessed with one way of thinking over the other, that is how extremism in belief systems is constructed. They may be motivated to create the imbalance in hopes of solving the problem behind their pain. But the ideas they come up with, come from a desperate imbalance of thought.
Constructionist thoughts are when we use real experience and logical reasoning to arrive at a conclusion. Where as dreamer thoughts, like dreams themselves have no required logic or experience. In fact, dreamer thoughts importantly leave logic out. Logic would mean that the thoughts would have boundaries. And moving beyond boundaries is what dreamer thoughts are all about. That doesn't mean they are meant to endanger us with reckless behavior, constructionist or dreamer thoughts can be both be reckless or saver. Dreamer thoughts instead, are used to help us image what we can't image, because we have not imaged them yet. In order to image what we have not yet imaged, we have to get messy, and do things that may be described as silly, or based on feelings not logic, or just non-sense. To be honest, a lot of dreamer thoughts are non-sense, and have no value. Dreamer thoughts don't have to be right, they just need to go somewhere new.
So what often happens, is that many people who are dominate in the dreamer side of thought, all start to reinvent something important in the world. All of them take great risks, and abandon prior conceptions, and attempt to do something different. Most of them fail, some of them fail with severe consequences, but a few strike upon something that works, and begin to change the world. They always run unto a common problem however. Their dreamer thought process, brought them to success, yet to manage the success, they will need help. This is where the constructionists will arrive and organize and update the new invention. They likely didn't believe in the risks, but now with the discovery that was made, and the success from it clearly proven, they are believers now, and are ready to help.
Eventually the new discovery is gradually taken over, going from dreamer control to constructionist control. This might seem like a bad story for the dreamer, and it may be to some extent. But for this to work, they often need a constructionist at some point. Someone with a more practical approach.
Have you the reader, ever heard a person say, "What is real for one person, may not be real for another." This idea that truth changes for each person is a common explanation from my experience. I have a different outlook of what truth is. When people say "true for you..." in my mind, we are really talking about our ability to interpret what we experience and assign meaning to it, in order to help us make choices in our lives. How we interpret what is happening in our lives, will modify our choices we make in the future. But what truth is, goes beyond our understanding, it's how the universe really is. The universe is endlessly complex. All these forces and atoms interact in such a way that makes one outcome happen over another, to me that is what truth is. That is truth to me. It's how things really are, not our attempt to understand what they really are. There is not a truth for you, and a truth for me. But, here is the positive side to this argument: our different ways of thinking are useful not because they help individuals find truth, they are helpful because they help us find the truth by working together.
When one person dreams and the other constructs, they form a symbiotic relationship, that is a slam dunk to survival success, and legitimate prosperity.
From my point of view, men and women are commonly given traits by nature that intentionally put them at odds with each other. Rather then a design flaw, this I feel, is how our ancestors survived. Men and women will tend to lean to one type of though in some areas and the other type of thought in other areas. Men and women lean differently so that they fit together. Women tend to show mercy toward the weak, while if people hurt the weak, they want strong justice. Men tend to not show mercy toward the week, and prefer more mercy toward the strong. All of that is very general, but if we fully examine men and women, I feel like more and more, we will find, that if men tend to be one thing, women tend to be the complimentary opposite. In the end, love brings these two different minds together, then when the love spell begins to wear off, they in fact, need to start opposing each other, because either has all the answers, but together, they likely will have the best answers. This doesn't mean they should fight, likely that will not bring the comprise they both need. Rather, the disagree, and process to work it out in a way, that they both get a livable outcome.
Another example of this is in politics. Yes, politics are not a great subject to talk about, but stay with me, I need to make a point. I feel like American liberals tend to favor the dreamer mentality, and the American conservatives tend to favor the constructionist mentality. This is why they don't get along very well. This is why they clearly see the other as having poor judgement. Because, of course you would think the other had bad judgement. Because to love one over the other, means you believe one has better rewards then the other, so they thing, "why doesn't my opponent understand this?" But I don't believe in loving one over the other. I believe the only good rewards come when both types of thought come together to make something new, and possible.
The dreamers make new things, and the constructionists make new things possible, that is the symbolic relationship.
So, we are all in this journey of life, constantly confronted with problems that must be solved. Our brain is capable of two kinds of thought, to help us. We will use both of them, yet one will at times dominate our personality. I feel, that if we listen to the lessons of life, we will learn over time to create a more equal balance in our own mind, and not think so harshly toward others, as they attempt to make the world better using a different thought process then ours.
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