Own Your Lens: An experiential post with homework

Everyone sees “reality” through a different lens. How we see determines what we see.

The way we look at objective reality determines not only how we interpret what we see, but it affects what we see. In other words, the mere act of observing something, changes it.

You might say that seeing is a creative act.

It is very important that you understand what lens through which you are doing this observing because in every act of observation you are participating in shaping the world we all live in. You not only owe it to yourself to have the richest experience of life possible, but you have a moral obligation to the rest of us to perceive correctly.

Please identify for yourself which group you belong to in each of the following categories:

1. Gender
2. Race
3. Religion
4. Class
5. Ethnicity
6. Sexual Identity
7. Nationality
8. Sexual Orientation
9. Ability
10. Age
11. Education
12. Work

This is a dozen of some of the major groups that people get classified into and identify as being members of. In each category there is a dominant group and one or more groups that are not so dominant. People who identify themselves as occupying a lot of dominant groups tend to think of themselves and the way they see things as “normal.” Someone who is very dominant- let’s call him a “Level 12 Dom” would not ever be prompted to question his viewpoint since its validity is so culturally affirmed. Who is this guy?

1. Gender: Male
2. Race: White
3. Religion: Christian
4. Class: Owning
5. Ethnicity: Northern European
6. Sexual Identity: Cissexual
7. Nationality: United States
8. Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
9. Ability: Abled
10. Age: Middle-age (broadly)
11. Education: Advanced Degree
12. Work: Professional

One could argue that Personality (because extroverts without mental disorders are dominant), Attractiveness (because attractive people are dominant), Body Type (because thin/fit is dominant), Color (because lighter is dominant), and Denomination (because Protestant is dominant) could be added, as well as others. Come up with some of your own.

These categories are not just for real characteristics but also for perceived characteristics. A person may receive the benefits of membership in a dominant group if they are perceived to be a member, even if they are not.

It is not better to be dominant. Dominance confers privilege. Privileges are not the same thing as superiority.

In fact a strong case can be made that it is immoral to claim membership in a dominant group in order to receive benefits that are derived from the subjugation of another group.

It is certainly limiting to be bound by one’s own lens, only looking at the world from the perspective of your various memberships. It is hard to convince dominant people that the fact of that limitation constitutes a compelling reason to try to expand their field of vision.

Entitlement

Where did that word come from? People who own titles are literally entitled. If you own title to real property or possess a peerage, you are entitled. People who claim membership in dominant groups perceive themselves to be entitled to the benefits of that group. Likewise, they perceive people who aren’t in the dominant group not to be entitled; it always feels strange to people who are literally entitled that someone who is not a dominant group member would try to claim any benefits from that group- for them to feel entitled seems like a character flaw.

And speaking of earning it, only some of the groups can be attained, they are mostly assigned.

The Meaning of Life

What if the purpose of life were not to amass wealth and power, were not to gain territory for one’s progeny and group, were not to collect toys because the person who dies with the most… wins?

What if the purpose of life were to experience life?

Light cannot experience itself without dark. Joy cannot experience itself without sorrow. Love cannot experience itself without hatred, cruelty and/or indifference.

Courage has no meaning without fear.

What if being a member of a dominant group were a negative- an existential disability?

1. Give yourself yourself one hundred points to start .
2. For each membership in a dominant group you claim, subtract five points.
3. The difference is your Life Evidence iNterpretation Score (LENS).

Notice that even if you claim membership in all twelve of the dominant categories, you would still have a LENS of forty. If you are an attractive, fit, pale, extroverted and well-adjusted Protestant, you can cut that in half.

If you are a member of all dominant groups, it means that you are missing out on almost all of life!

Krishnamurti (a “doctor” in the true sense) said it best – “it is no measure of sanity to be well-adjusted to an insane world.”

If you are only a member of dominant groups, you are as much a slave as the jailer who must guard the prisoner around the clock for fear he’ll escape. If you are only dominant, you are not freely and rationally choosing and creating possibilities, but rather merely deciding (killing off) options within the dominant paradigm. If you are using the same dominant consciousness that manufactured a problem to try to solve that problem, you will fail.

Your writers here at psactampa at the time of this writing are choosing to stay anonymous. All the posts were penned (keyed) by one psact original member; some had help, input, editing, and/or inspiration from the other original member. We don’t want the issue to be “about us” and also we don’t want to invite a harrassment law suit upon us. We haven’t broken the law and intend to keep it that way. We are not able to publicly identify our LENS at this time, which leads to another delicious irony. (The first one was anonymously “outing” a sex offender.)