Differences

I often quote things like, culture and beliefs, etc. in my postings. Today I stopped and compiled what I consider the traits that cause a reality gap in communications, i.e. understanding whether it is spoken, written or encountered through actions and deeds. Knowing these "differences" and then learning to compensate and overcome these differences in human interaction is also, I consider, vital knowledge if you wish to truly learn self-defense.

I have seven traits that denote reality gaps in human interactions. One, is the time. Time as in the year one encounters something, i.e. what is encountered and understood in 1883 vs. 2003 is huge. Two, is regarding the culture and ethnic groups you encounter. For instance, in some cultures to caste your eyes down means respect to authority while in another culture and/or ethnic group it may mean the person is lying and being disrespectful to the person. It matters.

Three, is the power relationships the interacting humans perceive. If one human holds an authoritative position over the other it matters as to perceptions, etc. Then there is number four, the perceiving person which encompasses all the factors or traits we are covering here. Five, as to all humans we have to deal with our sensory input, i.e. sight vs. smell vs. sound vs. touch. Not only directly as to physical manifestations but in communications where one speaks, perceives and understands according to a specific sense mode and the emotional state at the time.

Six, is our need to understand that our perceptions of our perceptions are actually real. We often when encountering interactions of humans find that what is perceived vs. what is meant vs. what is factually true differs - sometime greatly. We have to realize that what we perceive may not be real.

Finally, seventh, is our need to take into consideration both our internal and external environments. Remember that this also is influenced greatly by all these traits or factors because when entering an environment that is governed by a set of rules of culture, ethnic, etc. it changes the communications dynamics.

As can be seen here; the time, the culture and ethnic groups, the power relationships, the perceiving person, the sensory input modes, the perceptions of perceptions as to truth and accurate facts, and both the internal and external environments makes things at even the best of times challenging. The purpose here is to get the gray matter flowing and thinking bout this stuff. It is an attempt to get those involved in physical things like martial systems to consider every eventuality before engaging - it seems pretty darn important to me.