People tend to notice things first and foremost if they correlate to the things they think about, and it is very common for the things people think about to fascinate them. It is also common for people to assume the things that fascinate them are the same things that fascinate others, which in turn leads people to believe that others notice the same things they do. Follow? So what you're left with, for example, is a blonde who can't understand why I didn't notice her new shoes, and keep in mind, all of this is done while we simulatenously uphold the belief that our individual thoughts are special, and unthought of by others.
See, I'm obsessed with various people's thinking, because in general they're just so... bad at it. It's easy to make mistakes because we tend to form opinions based on reactions, as opposed to, ooh I don't know, thinking first them forming conclusions later? For example, this is what always gets me. We live in a world where if I so happened to sport a bumper sticker that read "Peace", some redneck driving down the road would think to himself, "Oh look at this fucking hippie". As if there were a single argument out there against peace! But this is what we do, we make sweeping generalizings about the things people stand for to make things nice and tidy, then hate that thing, if only for the sake of turning this game of truth into a war.
Like one of the biggest wars of all: red states versus blue states! It's the coastal cities versus middle America people! Statistics suggest that if you really had to color code America, we'd be varying shades of purple. Which is precisely to say that yes, liberals do live among rednecks, and rednecks do live among liberals. But screw that right? We gotta keep ourselves distracted with false wars, and purple is a color for those gays - red states and blue states!
The truth of the matter is, this isn't a war. We all just think differently. Liberals have a different way of thinking than conservatives, and even though conservatives are all idiots, they still have some valid things to say. But it's so much more soothing to the ego to think that our intellectual strengths define what intelligence is, while others are just good in certain areas. This is actually quite um, profound, I guess you could say, because we all think this and it's precisely what keeps us from appreciating others.
I, for example, can't stand business talk. I hate finances. And it's very tempting for me to think, "Oh those asians, they're just good with numbers, but look at me man. I break shit down, I put things together, I see the big picture". But if we didn't have Asians who were good with math and engineering, where would our cellphones that played Lil Wayne ringtones be? Exactly, we'd be trying to dance to a pac-bell ringtone, and that my friends, has no beat.
I just think it's damn important to appreciate the intelligences of others, especially when they are nothing like our own, but it's exactly the opposite. When it comes to displaying our intellectual prowess, everyone wants to go into into their little specialty corners and talk there. "No don't talk about that, talk about this!" Because we tend to believe our interests share more relevance than the interests of others. I'm two cents short from being a philosopher, I'll be damned if I'm appreciating what a lawyer has to say. Unless he's getting me out of prison.
It's only natural, though, to want to hear things that fall within the context of our pre-existing base of knowledge. We like to deal with the fringe of what is known and unknown. If I pointed out that the sky is blue, nobody would care, because everyone knows that. If I started reading from Einstein's journal of mathematical equations, nobody would care, because none of it would make sense. The only way for me to get anyone's pulse going, is to speak on the fringe of what is known and unknown, to expand the parameters of what people know.
But people think they know alot so its hard to find someone willing to hear it. I think it's a beautiful thing, if I may be gay for a moment, when you find two people who are completely willing to learn from each other. Pretentiousness is a bitch though, ain't it? Once you think you have all the answers ya stop looking for them. I guess its only natural that we tend to believe our personal experiences make us wiser, while the experiences of others make them bias.
I'll wrap things up though. It's a naive reality we live in, when three-fourths of our thoughts are wasted on meaningless trivial things, and the other one-fourth wasted on telling ourselves how smart we are - you really gotta wonder if what we tell ourselves is true. If you ask me, we're just good at what we're good at. Smart is too broad of a word. But lets all go ahead and keep thinking we're geniuses. Afterall, we are the ones who dictate the reality of our own thoughts, and who wants to question the thoughts that make us feel better?
So hell yeah we're biased. About as lopsided as a fat kid on a see-saw.
