The Truth About Why We Do What We Do

I’ll never forget the day when I learned how the world works and why people do what they do. I was running a community event and my cohort made a unilateral decision, which was a game changer for the event, and then put it out in an email, which made it public and permanent.  Confirming my theory all along that running events should never be a team sport, I was fuming to a friend of mine, who stopped me short. “Hanna,” she said, “it’s very simple. People see things incredibly differently – and then they just act consistent with how they see things.”  Beautiful. Simple. And so true.

Whenever you are frustrated by, say a curious toddler who shoved 20 raisins up her nose to see what would happen, or horrified by a murderous jihadist lopping off people’s heads for their “heresy”, or in awe of someone who risks life and limb to help a stranger, and you wonder how such behavior is possible, just employ that simple explanation – the real “Theory of Everything” – and you’ll understand that people’s actions – whether you like it or understand it – or not – always make sense in their worldview.

The Fallacy Of Seeing Is Believing

By definition, a “worldview” is not objective reality. It is a subjective construct, based on who we are at any given moment. We construct a worldview based on our perceptions, which we hold in high esteem and will even bet the farm on their accuracy. “I’ll believe it when I see it”, is a common phrase, which presupposes that we see what is there and what is there is what we see. From the claims of the Flat Earth Society to your own assumptions regarding the inner workings of the people around you, we simply get it wrong most of the time. In law school, we were taught that the most inaccurate direct evidence there is, is eyewitness testimony.

We think that our eyes act like cameras taking snapshots of objective reality. According to cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman, while it is true that in a certain respect our eyes function like a camera, in that we have lenses that focus images on the back of the eye where they are met by 130 million photo receptors, that doesn’t begin to explain why the vision process itself takes up one full third of the brain’s entire cortex, engaging billions of neurons and trillions of synapses. It’s overkill to an unimaginable degree! It’s because we use our brains – not just as a 130 million-pixel camera, but more like an ultra Photoshop, where we select, edit, filter, construct, reconstruct and interpret that so-called snapshot of reality. Within billions or neurons and trillions of synapses, therefore, is a lot of wiggle room for interpretation. But the wiggle itself is pretty narrow. Out of the billions of bits of data that our brain receives per second, we can only process and constructively use less than a hundred.

Believing Is Seeing

And so while it is true that we have no choice in how our brains operate, scientific studies have shown that we have a choice about the wiggle itself. Our worldview is based on a self-selected and created fragmented slice of “reality” that we choose  – from numerous realities. You know the saying – “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t – you are right.” So the better way of thinking about our perceptions  is not that “seeing is believing”, but that “believing is seeing”. Because what we “see” when we “look” is a choice. We see what we’re looking for – always. You want to find something to criticize in a person? You will. You want to find the negative in a situation? You will. Says Thoreau, “even in paradise, a faultfinder will find fault”. Conversely, you want to see the good in a person or a situation? You will. You want to see your life as filled with blessings? You can. And so the trick is to construct a worldview – out of the many possibilities – that is ultimately the most valuable one.

Choosing Life Over Death

This week’s Torah portion, “Re’eh”, which means “See”, tells us to look at the choices before us, to see life and death, blessings and curses, and to choose life.  “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse…” and it ends as follows: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil . . . blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”

Well, that’s pretty easy, isn’t it? Anyone given the choice between life and death, good and evil, blessings and curses should be able to get that one right. But just to make sure, Torah advises us about which choice to make, just in case we’re lacking in the clarity department. How many of you have ever perused the dessert menu and unhesitatingly ordered that famously-rich decadent chocolate cake oozing molten chocolate pudding, called “Death By Chocolate?” You smile a little at the waiter as you order “death”, adding the words, “and bring two spoons, please.” ‘Nuff said.

Ok let’s get serious. The reason Moses tells us to look, to see the life and death choices before us – and admonishes us to choose wisely – it is precisely because things are not so obvious. We don’t see things clearly. If we can be confused by seemingly clear-cut opposite choices, such as life and death, then, it’s not obvious. We must not be so sure what we are seeing – or else why be told which is the better choice?

Or…..do we deliberately make things unclear? Do we intentionally obfuscate our own clarity? Is there anything about the words “Death by Chocolate” that you really don’t understand? If reality is truly up for grabs, and perception is everything, then we need to discipline our minds to focus on and construct a reality that is valuable.  We have to know what life is – in order to choose it. We have to know what a blessing looks like – to appreciate it.

How Reality Is A Reflection Of Ourselves

We don’t see reality the way it is – we see reality the way that we are!  If you want to create a better world, therefore, look through the eyes of you as a better person. We all want to change the world, but are we willing to change ourselves? As the late great photographer Dorothy Lange said, “Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon. We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are”. And that is where Torah comes in – to give you the clarity necessary to as a means to see, construct and then live in a valuable reality. It’s the ultimate book on training your brain.

The Torah is called the Tree of Life, and a tree has many branches and many leaves. Look at it. See it with the deliberate intention, of seeing something good, of seeing something in a new light, anything really, that will help you be a better, kinder person, that will help you get a little bit closer to God and a little more loving of your fellow man. Just one leaf. Choose it as a your constructed worldview and then act consistent with your choice. The lives we lead are made up by our all of our choices and decisions based on our perceptions. In any given second, you get less than 100 bits of reality to play with, so use them well and choose wisely.