THE “NAÏVE,” THE "JADED," AND THE "REAL":
3 WAYS TO SEE THE WORLD
Article by LiveReal Agents Courtney, Kevin, and Grace
There are three ways to see the world: the “naïve,” the “jaded,” and the “real.”
(They aren’t the only three, of course. There are many ways to slice a pizza, as Confucius might have said.)
It’s similar to putting on a pair of glasses.
We don’t “see” glasses.
We see through them.
(- unless we’re glasses-shopping.) Meaning, we buy them, put them on, & forget about them. We then assume that we’re just seeing the world as it is, as if the glasses were having no influence.
The same thing can happen with certain ideas, attitudes, mindsets, or “ways to see the world.”
But they do affect the way we see the world, and often in profound ways.
They distort, skew, and sometimes block parts of our perspective, creating blind spots.
Ideally, it all works to our benefit. The distortions act as corrections. But that isn’t always the case.
In Talladega Nights, stock car driver Ricky Bobby had a massive Fig Newtons sticker across his windshield.
On the plus side, it was premium ad space.
It probably made him a lot of money.
On the downside, he couldn’t really see to drive.
Some ideas and perspectives are like “mental glasses.”
They’re like Fig Newton stickers on the windshields of the mind.
Here are three.
The “Naïve”
This way of seeing things means adopting ideas, consciously or not, like the following:
• “Life is good.”
• “The future is bright. I have lots of things to look forward to.”
• “People are trustworthy.”
• “What I’m doing is meaningful.”
• “I have goals or aims, and they’re worth striving for.”
• “I’m heading for “IT” at some point in the future – some profound, transformative event or experience that will transform me into the magnificent being I sense I really am.”
The naïve way to see the world is natural to children.
The “Jaded”
This way of seeing things means adopting ideas, consciously or not, like the following:
• “Life is hard, confusing, unfair, brutal, sometimes miserable, often stupid, and it seems to end badly.”
• “The future looks bleak. I don’t have lots of things to look forward to.”
• “People are only in it for themselves. And most of them are jerks about it.”
• “Things are often absurd and pointless. It’s all much ado about nothing.”
• “The goals most people strive to achieve often turn out to be hollow, unsatisfying, and empty. Few reach the top, and those who do typically realize “IT” isn’t there.”
• “In the past, I’ve looked forward to some profound, transformative event that will change me into the magnificent being I sense I really am. But that big event hasn’t happened, and it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to happen. “IT” seems to be a mirage.”
The jaded way to see the world often comes naturally to adults who have been through the ringer, or a few ringers.
The world often teaches us (or “disillusions” us) – or tries to – along these lines as we go through life.
The “Real”
This way of seeing things is the underlying view described by the major religions of the world.
It’s what smart people throughout history (seers, saints, and sages (“smart” in a very particular sense) have been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to communicate to the rest of us.
It means adopting ideas, consciously or not, like the following:
• Neither the naïve nor the jaded perspectives describe the world correctly. Both views are valid, partially accurate, and incomplete. Neither is comprehensive. It’s as if they’re seeing pieces of the puzzle, but not the entire puzzle.
• The naïve is what we tend to get before much experience; the jaded is what we often tend to get after much experience.
• Religions exist.
• Genuine religions are trying to point toward something most of us can’t fully see or understand, but sense or intuit.
• Genuine religions are trying to communicate something that’s extremely difficult to communicate. They’re also often trying to communicate it to people who don’t want to hear it, are unable to hear it, disbelieve or refuse it if they do hear it, or – when they do hear and understand a small part of it – often mangle it when applying it to the rest of life.
• “IT” is real, but isn’t at all guaranteed.
• There is a “solution” to “The Problem of Life.” That “solution” fuels both the innate intuitions of the naïve and the hard-won insights of “the jaded.” It fully includes and goes beyond both. It satisfies the intuitions of the naïve, and fully resolves – without merely ignoring or dismissing – the valid concerns of the jaded. If we can figure out how to see the world and ourselves correctly, we’ll “get” that.
• Solving The Problem of Life involves looking for what the major religions of the world are trying to point out to us, “getting” it, and taking it seriously.
There’s an old saying that applies along these lines.
“Be as wise as snakes and innocent as doves.”
That isn’t easy.
We often start out innocent and naïve.
But then life happens. Experience can make us wiser, but also more jaded. Sometimes it can mean getting beaten up, kicked around, bruised, disappointed, demoralized, traumatized, degraded, exhausted, or hollowed out.
In the process of becoming wise, we can lose our innocence.
Or, the opposite can happen as well: we can also be vigilant about guarding and preserving our innocence, but never wise up. We can insulate and isolate ourselves to the point that we wind up avoiding or missing life altogether.
The “real” trick is to manage both.
“Wisdom” and “innocence” are often mutually contradictory. They’re natural enemies, like fire and water. Water extinguishes fire (when water “wins) or fire evaporates water (when fire “wins).
The challenge is to have both, and keep them separated enough that they don’t eliminate each other.
It’s to resolve the tension between “life as it is” and “life as it should be,” where idealism can either be crushed by a harsh world or triumph over it.
Don Quixote confronted this problem. So did Zorba the Greek. So did Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ahab from Melville’s Moby Dick, Myshkin from Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus, Jeremy Levin’s Don Juan DeMarco, and plenty of others.
It’s a challenge we all face.
Don’t we all have inner Fig Newton stickers that are blocking our view?
As William Blake (almost) said, can we cleanse the Fig Newton stickers from the windshields of perception, and see clearly?
Here's to those who strive to see clearly.