Opinion and Temperament

Whenever I browse social media, even here on Steemit, it's interesting to note how people give their opinions and arrange their thoughts in a manner in which they believe to be true. This is fine of course, everyone has the right to say what they think or feel regardless of what others might say; and more importantly, this is the only way we can really learn about ourselves. Everything one can possibly know can only come from how much we are acquainted with ourselves. Even interpreting what others say is regulated by our own ideas about them.

Many amateur psychologists and academics like to use models that reflect the variety of types of people we encounter. Jung was famous for setting the trend a hundred years ago and today we have personality systems like MBTI, The Big Five, and Socionics. Trying to put humans into distinct personality traits and styles is nothing new, several ancient traditions propose this idea of temperament and it indeed can be useful. Often times when we discuss things with others we take it for granted that they are likely coming from a different angle because their perspective is based on their temperament, whichever that may described as.

The controllers and freeman each have their predisposed way of thinking which is greatly influenced by how the furniture of their mind is arranged. How can one expect to enlighten or "educate" somebody when one can't possible know how somebody else views the world which is determined by their own conceived notions and biases. This fact of life makes things difficult for communication, yet also liberating as an immense burden can be dropped on the part of moralists and do-gooders in us who try to "improve society". The only thing you can do is go about and help those whose mental layout is constructed in a similar way as yourself; knowing that you don't necessarily know who those people are, but you can be a support or a source of inspiration—anything else is just a wild goose chase.