Perspective Enlightens Facts
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In the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling he passionately instructs his readers to consider new ways of thinking or certainly ways to avoid thinking. Rosling says “This book is my very last battle in my lifelong mission to fight devastating global ignorance. It is my last attempt to make an impact on the world: to change people’s way of thinking, calm their irrational fears, and redirect their energies into constructive actives.” (15) Rosling comes to this conclusion after a life of trying o provide facts and information to educate the ignorance out of people. After hitting brick walls he realized that it wasn’t simply sharing the knowledge but that the worldview people held the perspectives they had would construe the facts or make the facts unbelievable. He calls this an overdramatic world view. As humans we tend to use our worldview to tell the story regardless of the facts. We let what Rosling calls our “dramatic instincts” our hard wired instincts create our overdramatic worldview (14-15) Being open to learning and asking questions is an important part of discovering fats but we also have to acknowledge where our hardwired brains, our instincts, can sway us and where our worldview can lead us to bias.
Bias is the Enemy of Factfulness
Rosling lays out the Overdramatic Instincts that we have as humans in the chapters of is book.
- Negativity
- Straight Line
- Fear
- Size
- Generalization
- Destiny
- Single Perspective
- Blame
- Urgency
Each of these instincts play a role in how we see the world and the bias that they bring to how we view facts and process truth and un truth. When we allow these instincts to blind us to the facts before us then we begin to to see the world in a more negative light than what is really there. Rosling argues that we should be teaching critical thinking and we should acknowledge that the world is constantly changing and our worldview will have to do the same. “Most important of all, we should be teaching our children humility and curiosity.” (249) This is how we can begin to shape our perspective and change our worldview.
Change of Perspective
“Factfulness is recognizing that a single perspective can limit your imagination, and remembering that is is better to look at problems from many angles to a get a more accurate understanding and find practical solutions.” (202) When we only see things from one angle we miss the complexity and often the truth of what we are seeing. This perspective shift has been made real for me in many ways through my travel to other places and from experiencing first hand the facts that are present in places other than my own. I recently took a trip to Thailand. We sent some time in the the city of Bangkok. The city was full of people, vehicles, buses, subways, buildings, and especially glamorous shopping malls. From the perspective of a tourist it is a city with wealth and abundance. Looking beyond the simple exterior you would find that there are deep pains and struggle. From the sex trafficking and poverty, to the basic infrastructure lacking clean drinkable water. Things can appear one way and yet there is always something a different perspective can show you. There are similar issues right here in the United States that we often fail to see. Now, Rosling is trying to show us that the world is actually not as doomed as our bias might convince us. This can also be seen with a change of perspective. The people of Thailand are full of joy and generosity as well. We found ourselves at a bus stop confused about how to get to where we needed to and people saw our confusion and began to ask how they could help, gathering around us about 5 people discussed in Thai how they could help us find the best route and then one of them in English gave us directions to our destination. They wanted to help a foreign stranger in the their city. There is good in the world and sometimes it takes experiencing it to change your perspective and open your mind to the facts that there is still kindness and hope in the midst of the overdramatic worldview that our bias forms in our minds.
We can find this new perspective by being willing to think critically and challenge the bias we hold deep with in us and then to embrace curiosity as we explore more possibilities than what we might see on the surface, all with a humble learners heart willing to acknowledge when the facts we thought were real might really have changed and there is a new perspective revealing new facts in our ever changing world.
- Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong about the World–and Why Things Are Better than You Think, First edition (New York: Flatiron Books, 2018).
About the Author
Sara Taylor Lattimore
Sara is adopted, a wife of 17 years, a mother to 2 amazing children who give her opportunities to be a cheerleader, dress up like a princess, play soccer in the mud, and go on amazing adventures. With a Bachelors in political science and sociology, Sara worked for Child Protective Services as a legal caseworker before following a call into full-time ministry in 2008. During her time in full-time ministry Sara has served in medium to large size local congregations, as well as camp ministry. Sara has a passion for serving others, writing, and speaking. In 2016 Sara worked on a joint publication as a Curriculum Writer. Sara wrote the Intergenerational/Family & Day Camp Resources in “Beyond Belief” for InsideOut Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministry- Published by Chalice Press- Release Date 2018. Sara is looking forward to writing her own book next. Sara completed her MDiv from Iliff School of Theology in 2019 and is currently working on her Doctorate in Leadership and Global Perspectives from Portland Seminary. Sara currently serves as Lead Pastor of a local church in Southwestern Montana. She has previously served in ministry positions leading congregations in engaging globally in healthy mission and outreach partnerships, living life missionally, building innovative programs, and building relationships as the Director of Missions and Outreach, College Ministry Coordinator, Family and Children’s Ministry Director, Director of Christian Education, and Camp Program Director. She is an innovator and visionary who looks to find empowering and dignity restoring ways of building communities of belonging, while listening and partnering with others to find ways to also address the needs of the communities she is planted in. Beyond her work, Sara dreams of growing her family through adoption, kayaking with Orcas, going on pilgrimage on the Camino De Santiago in Spain, traveling in an RV across North America, and traveling internationally.6 responses to “Perspective Enlightens Facts”
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Sara – Wonderful post. I loved the story about your recent trip and am reminded of Brene Brown’s quote that most people are doing the best they can at any given moment. When we keep this in mind, it’s easier to avoid jumping to conclusions and take time to ask questions to better understand. Thank you!
Laura, I think you are right, the jumping to conclusions is where we so often get things wrong our bias comes into play and we forget to be humble learners.
I Loved hearing about your time in Thailand!
Like you said in your post and many videos that I came across… Rosling he kept saying we are not as doomed as we think!
I agree and disagree…. When you go to places whether it be in the states, Thailand, Nepal, or really anywhere and you see whole communities suffering at a level that most people cant fathom…. Where did we go wrong to leave them like that? Who are we to say its not as bad as it looks! Its bad Rosling! Its bad!
Alana, I too struggled with the level of optimism in the argument. There are definitely things that break our hearts and the heart of God in this world. I would say that when we look purely at the statistics, the facts on the news or social media this is certainly where our instincts and bias can come into play. I understand the idea that things are not as bad as these things can be spun to show, and that hope in some good could change our world. We also have to not ignore the pain that exists, seeing it gives us the opportunity to make an impact and offer hope.
Sara, I love this, “There is good in the world and sometimes it takes experiencing it to change your perspective and open your mind to the facts that there is still kindness and hope in the midst of the overdramatic worldview that our bias forms in our minds.” It reminds me of a quote my Mr. Rogers, “Always look for the helpers…because if you look for the helpers you’ll know that there is hope.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328
Thank you for sharing your story about Thailand and the helpers. I loved sharing in your journey from afar on Facebook!
Becca, Mr. Rogers had so much wisdom! I wish I could share so much more about the Thailand trip there were so many times my perspective was shifted.