Redefining Personal Ideologies and Embracing Humanistic Perspectives Holds Promise for A Better Society
The humanistic perspective emphasizes looking at a person as a whole instead of looking at them through a tiny aspect of that person. It means that looking at people from a broader perspective would help us appreciate them more and make this world a little better. Human ideologies on the other hand deal with our philosophies about life.
The humanistic perspective approach in psychology focuses on the person’s potential and ability to change. It connotes looking at the positive image of a person as being human with their uniqueness, talents and abilities.
It is not always that personal ideologies are void of humanistic perspectives but some sets of beliefs and norms are destructive. Some of those ideologies have been indoctrinated into our minds from past generations and from a very young age which we take to mean gospel truths. There may be some things we continue to hold as true yet with critical thinking we come to realize how dangerous they are towards societal progression.
The issue of human ideologies and humanistic perspectives came to my mind this past week after I had a lovely encounter with an old man. I ran into the 84-year-old running an errand within a shared space I use and greeted him. Thereafter, I engaged him in a short chat and he was glad I had spoken to him.
He told me a few stories about himself and his family. Then he hinted to me how he has had some beliefs which over the years he has come to realize are detrimental to societies’ peaceful cohesion and co-existence.
One thing that stood out was that we were from different races, the age difference was massive, and our initial life experiences were different including our religions much as we found that we believed in the existence of God.
The most intriguing thing however was when the old man told me how surprising it was that he found me a good man. Then I realised past encounters can be one of the things that shape human ideologies and lead to the obscureness of humanistic perspectives. For instance, this man might have met a few people from my race who perhaps were not good to him and that might have made him think that all people from my race are bad. Something that is not true. Maybe it was my looks.
My encounter, as I remarked to him, was a wake-up call to look at each person in their uniqueness and firstly with a positive outlook. It is not surprising that some personal ideologies are products of irrational doctrines inherited or developed out of imagination and strongly embedded in our minds to the extent that even rational training makes it hard to change them.
In my ideology, for instance, the meaning of rich is a person with lots of money and assets. I am sure that most people’s perspectives are similar to mine. And thus the discussion about the gap between the rich and the poor stops at that. A metric of economic and social balance.
What about the richness of health, contentment, a supportive family, a loving partner, an understanding spouse or even friends who are there for us no matter the situation? Since all of these are ‘less’ abstract aspects of richness, we rarely consider them.
The danger comes when we maybe meet a person and instead of looking at the potential of that person, we begin to judge them by how much they have or how well they measure to what we have and our potential before they can, for instance, be our friends.
Sometimes these same ideologies are used in employment gigs and instead of humanistic perspectives, we use personal ideologies some of which are odd such as personal looks, racial prejudices, and religious inclinations instead of skills and abilities before we can offer people opportunities.
A better society is a few perspective changes away. It is about questioning some of the ideologies we have held for a long time and embracing some humanistic perspectives in a holistic sense. This requires that we have a proper audit of ourselves and see how we look at other people irrespective of what stage of knowing them we are.
Then we should check against the humanistic perspectives metric and see how we are performing. Are we looking at people humanly in a positive sense? Do we tend to seek to know what their potential is? Do we believe that they can change? Are we ready to help others change their humanistic perspectives as well for a better society?
Whatever we do, the choice is ours. For me, I already embraced humanistic perspectives and so far it is serving me well. I am also changing how I approach issues in my life. It is not about how long I have known something, it is about how right it is. I am very optimistic that my one act will make the world a better place however little that better will be.
You are welcome to join me in this transformative journey.
