Monday, August 13, 2012

Your ego is your enemy

I love this passage from TJ Dawe's TEDxManitoba presentation called "An Experiment in Collective Intelligence":

"Our world is rife with dualistic thinking. This is what our reptilian brain wants us to do. It's a survival mechanism. It's necessary. It's not bad in and of itself. 

We think in opposites. Are you for me or are you against me? Are you my friend or are you my enemy? Are you right or are you wrong? When two people are thinking dualistically, which most of us do, most of the time, and they're engaged in a conversation - not even a fight - not even a debate - not even an argument - if they're just having a conversation and they come up to a point of difference, "I think this is the case". "No, I disagree, I think that is the case", as soon as that happens, the conversation is over. 

Because at that moment, each person's ego becomes invested in their opinion. From that point, to cede an inch is to lose face and that simply cannot happen. So the inner script is to defend my position no matter what facts are actually being exchanged."

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