THROUGH TINTED LENSES

Every single person has their own thoughts, dreams, and beliefs. As such, there is no objectively correct opinion as to have an opinion is inherently human, and therefore, inherently subjective. Yet there are objective facts. Things that did happen. Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Neil Armstrong was the first human on the moon. When I was 4, a pigeon flew over me and defaecated on my head. So how do we, as humans, reconcile the differences between objective truth and the subjectivity we innately bear?

As our teachers have drilled into us from the onset of our education, we need to check multiple sources. While we likely never questioned the reasoning behind it, it stands as a good method of generally getting less bias; with multiple sources, probability states that results tend to favour an average outlook. But an average outlook is not always a neutral one. While an average outlook takes the grand average of all opinions, a neutral outlook is truly free of bias.

While in matters of opinion, morality, and philosophy, the average outlook should be chosen, as when the great majority of sources report one view and a small minority report the other, it is one’s duty to take the popular side. But that is not a justification for ignoring the other side, for refusing to listen and hear out the views of another; nothing ever is. For matters of fact, history, and logic, the neutral outlook is chosen; inherently, such matters are and must be free of opinion, of morality, and of philosophy.

But this all means nothing without the structure of a narrative, the structure of lore. Every good story has statements both objective and subjective; each well-written story or lore has different views of the same truth, through different pairs of eyes. And this has proven to be extraordinarily difficult for me when writing anything; I am limited by my own views. And looking through the tinted lenses of others is hard, especially for someone who finds it difficult to empathise.

Such a switching of viewpoints is difficult. To temporarily change one’s beliefs, and to do so as genuinely as possible, is a task far harder than it seems. Try it, for a moment. Imagine yourself as a follower of another religion, as a holder of the opposite political view, as one with an entirely reimagined outlook on life, the universe, and everything. Perhaps you found it easy. You probably didn’t. Having to temporarily adopt this new identity, be it a desperate lone wanderer after a nuclear war, a nineteenth-century Russian aristocrat in an eternal war against the forces of revolution, or some random person across the street you just didn’t like for whatever stupid, petty reason, taking on another personality is a difficult and draining exercise.

And yet, the ability to understand others, to take their viewpoints, even though it clashes against everything one stands for and everything one believes in, is an immensely powerful tool, not only for writing, but understanding people, history, and the world at large. Ultimately, well-written lore is never something simple enough for one viewpoint, for one correct opinion. Just as no object can be fully seen from only one angle, the manifold tapestries that make up a narrative require scores of lenses and angles through and from which they can be seen to fully appreciate their beauty. Just as white light is made of every colour, in order to see things as they are, one must see them through lenses of every tint and colour.

We will always have our own biases and viewpoints, for our own lenses are inherently tinted. And these biases, these viewpoints, these opinions, no matter how strange, contrarian, and unconventional they may be, are our right to hold. Yet, to achieve full, clear, understanding, we must forgo this right and drop our tinted lenses. It is an immeasurably difficult task, and separating one’s biases and opinions from objective fact is difficult, in many cases impossible even. But we can try. We can come as close as possible to the truth; we can pursue it until the trail goes cold; we can fly closer and closer to the sun. And finally, we can take comfort in the acknowledgement of our biases towards fact, and earn the ability to see through tinted lenses with one eye, and see clearly through the other.

The ability to choose whether to see through one’s tinted lenses or to see things clearly is immensely difficult to earn; conversely, it is immensely useful in all manner of situations. It lets us empathise better. It lets us judge situations and people better. It lets us see the full spectrum of opinions on any matter clearly, and then make our own decisions as to which tint of lens we will choose to see it through. Everyone sees through tinted lenses. But it is infinitely better to choose which tint of lens we see through.