One might wonder just how so many people can look at, the oil spill in the Gulf, unemployment in Michigan, health care, etc, and reach such different conclusions. The answer is in this hundreds year old fable of the six blind men and the elephant. Notably it appears in multiple religions and languages. 

now, couple this point of view story with Dale Carnegie's observation that every person thinks he or she is the very center of the universe. Indeed, for thousands of years everyone assumed the sun revolved around the earth. Even when it was proved otherwise, the Catholic Church waited about four centuries to admit Copernicus was right. So, don't expect those that are convinced of their views that they should change them, even within your lifetime!

Behold the Elephant

 It was six men of Hindustan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind), 

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

John Godfrey Saxe, 1816-1887

We re in a period of prolonged economic stagnation. This is the inevitable result of the 1982-2000 period of boom. This bear market will root out failed strategies and require new perspective if one is to survive it intact. Another feature of such a period is the idea of exclusion. Other ideas and indeed peoples will be excluded rather than included. Already there are calls to nationalize British Petroleum (a third world idea of expropriating assets of foreign company) and Israel is under fire even more than usual. To appreciate and endure what is happening, we return to the parable of the six blind men of India who attempt to describe an elephant.

Saxe’s poem quoted above is the most famous Western version but there are Jain, Hindu,  Buddhist  and Muslim versions as well.   Here is the Jain (an Indian religion of the ninth century) version.

The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

The point of the story of course is that everyone has a totally different perspective of the same facts. Working in groups of faculty, administration, and students has brought this home to me the last few years. Indeed, there are many elephants on the same campus.

Now, to complete one’s understanding of what is happening, appreciate that the power of Point of View prevents each blind person (or the one sitting next to you in a meeting) from seeing the perspective of anyone else in the group. Dale Carnegie put his finger on this one, each person believes that he or she is the center of their own universe.  And so each argues that the ‘elephant’ is a tusk or a pillar but certainly not a rope.

This difficulty takes many forms. Peace in the Middle East to Syria means an absence of Israel.  A ‘clean environment’ may mean some fantasy escape from the necessity of carbon based fuels. Access to health care may actually mean considerable re distribution of wealth.   Just his week Oliver Stone was extolling the virtue of Hugo Chavez to Larry King; a Congressman expressed amazement at this view.

The ultimate negative social disagreement is war. With the Dow at 10,000, North Korea has already sunk a South Korean vessel resulting in loss of life.  Israel may well attack Iran.  If my assumptions come true, that the Dow will revisit its March 2009 lows in the next two years, expect that opinions and actions will harden that much further.

Saxe sums all this up as follows, and remember this observation has floated around for hundreds of years, nothing is going to change human nature.

Moral:

So oft in theologic wars,

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!