Relevance and Context

Caveat: this post is my interpretation of readings and studies therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. It is highly recommended one fact check the data for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter.  

Relevance: means "important to the matter at hand.”; means "important to the matter at hand.”; the ability (as of an information retrieval system) to retrieve material that satisfies the needs of the user …

Context: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.; the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning.; the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect; the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.; the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc, that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning: it is unfair to quote out of context; the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc.

the trouble with tribbles, i.e. the trouble with most posts concern the context and the relevance of that post as it applies to that context. In other words most postings, including mine, tend to take a quote from an article then post on that quote and that quote may or may not represent the entire article. This leads to an infinite loop that is self-generating similar to the conundrum of which came first, “The Chicken or the Egg.” 

When I remember I try to let the reader know that what I am posting regards the quote or terms or article that is often quoted or referenced in a bibliography and therefore have or has noting to do with that author or his or her posting or article. Often, mostly, it is about the exact quote taken on its own merit, alone and separate from the source material derived from for my posts, articles and mindless meanderings. 

Until the context is fully understood and until any comments, quotes or renderings are contextually connected and accurate the war on words will continue round and round and round we go, like an infinite loop. 

In my view, almost all arguments in the martial community comes from the human pension to stop immediately when they read or hear a comment, usually out of context to the relevance of the entire discussion, so they can immediately take control, a hierarchical and status type thing, and express their opinions on that one small thread that usually is not about the topic of the discussion. It is a monkey dance we all lean heavily toward and why “Active Listening” is such an important trait to develop. We all do it, not actively listen but jump as soon as our Monkey mind perceives something emotional and irrelevant to the context and relevance of any discussion be it spoken or written. We witness this phenomena every time some emotional volatile situation arises in the news such as police involvement where great bodily harm or death occur. We immediately shut out any relevant information that would go against what we are about to say or do so that we can excuse what ever we do say or do. 

The breakdown in communications between humans and human tribes or groups often come from that breakdown that happens over the relevance and context of any situation, regardless. If only we could, first, actually learn and apply active listening, second, we could shut down our emotional reactions from the monkey brain and prevent the monkey slide then use our human brains to actively listen, analyze the data, seek out more data though research and active listening and reading then make a relevant and contextually accurate thought that will be then spoken or written. 

Hmmm, sounds like a plan doesn’t it. How many of you actually read the entire post first before starting to formulate a thought and response? How many of you who have read this entire post now think, “Oh, yea, this could stop a lot of violence and create avoidance and/or deescalation thus avoiding violence therefore be a good topic and subject for training, teaching and applying self-defense for conflicts and violence.”