Perception's Deception

Perception is a tricky concept for me. I have been thinking a lot about this concept lately. In fact I have thought about it often enough that is has become somewhat of an annoyance. To be honest I guess I have always been preoccupied with the whole concept of perception and how we see things. I have even wrote it about it several times here in articles like "It's All In Your Head" and "Looking For A Way Out." Actually to be honest most of my personal writing in one way or another deals with perception.

Lately it has been the smallest things that send me off into deep thoughts about perception. For instance the other night as we were turning in for the night, my wife commented that it was kind of warm in the room. (Actual temperature 56 degrees...I checked.) I found that interesting because just a few days earlier when it was much cooler outside, the same room at 56 degrees was nice and cozy. Later on that night with the air condition on, I lay awake pondering the fact that if it had been cold outside, then I would be in the same room shivering under the covers longing for the heat to be turned on.

Eventually I drifted off to sleep, but when I awoke I continued toying with the idea of perception. I don't remember being taught very much about perception, and I find this very ironic as it seems that almost everything we do or say is affected in some way shape or form by it. People choose careers, partners, friends all on the basis of perception. We even determine things like fair and unfair according to our own perception of things. We even avoid things that may be good for us if we have a negative perception of something or vice versa, we readily consume things that are deadly when we perceive some kind of positive benefit. Kind of like the people who say they smoke to relieve stress..when chemically the effect it has on the body actually causes stress...go figure.

When I penned "I Aint Be Got No Weapon" I toyed with the reader's perception, as I recalled a run in I had with the police and sure enough many people who read about my encounter with the police officer, automatically perceived him to be white. Some of them were surprised when I revealed in the end that he wasn't. Even the article "Top Ten Fears Blocking Barak Obama from Becoming President of The United States" humorously over exaggerates some of the unexpressed mis-perceptions surrounding the notion of an African American becoming the President.

As I was thinking on perception I was reminded of a scene from the movie Major Payne (the remake with Damon Wayans not the Charlton Heston version.) In the movie a little kid says something nice to him and Major Payne (Wayans) gruffly picks him up and interrogates him "Are You Plottin on me BOY!!!) It's actually funny in the movie, but not so funny when it happens in real life.

My pondering about perception has continually left me with more questions and still no answers. How many decision are made everyday based on an incorrect perception? How many of society ills are the result of perception or should I say mis-perception? I began wondering how many misunderstanding are rooted in the clashing of different perceptions?

As I said I have more questions than answers, but one thing is becoming clear to me. There are those who understand perfectly how perception works, and they work diligently at learning how to manipulate people's perceptions. These people realize that you can move a person, gain their trust and even take advantage of them, simply by controlling what they think they see and know about you...by controlling and manipulating their perception. When I was younger they used to refer to these people as confidence men or con men for short. These days however they call them politicians.

It amuses me that most people aren't even aware of how much of their life and actions are built on and shape around their perceptions (even when those perceptions are wrong.) I now find myself wondering if maybe everyone else should invest a little time and effort into investigating the mystery of perception and how much it shapes their lives...but then again this whole thing could just be a matter of my own misguided perception.