I mention objective and subjective a lot in the website. I explore the difference between them in this post in how we perceive the Sun, and this Sub-Chapter describes their relevance in respect of our level of self-awareness.
In resolving a human type problem, having an objective view means that we stand back and detach ourselves emotionally. This helps us in figuring out a way to resolve it. If we can be objective, it means that we won’t be too biased or prejudiced – as we would be if we are emotionally involved – and we might be able to see an alternative view.
The opposite to objective is subjective. Instead of standing back, we are immersed in the problem and, usually, emotionally involved. Being subjective means that we base our decisions on how we perceive something and/or what we feel right now, and we find it difficult to stand back from the feeling that surrounds whatever the issue is.
Of course, like many aspects of our humanity, the optimum in our decision making is when we manage to have a healthy balance between the two. Being totally objective is like being a robot (no ability to be emotional) and being totally subjective would be totally opposite (very limited ability to think a problem through).
It is very important to know the difference between being objective and being subjective when supporting people who are in distress. This is because our subjective experience of something contains far more emotional energy than the objective. The balanced development of the left and right sides of our brain is crucial in our learning to have a healthy mixture of both in our decision making.
In all conflict, if we cannot stand back from an issue and assess its importance in the longer term (what we sometimes call the bigger picture) we will find resolution a lot harder. The purpose of our legal system is to ensure objectivity in settling disputes between people who are emotionally charged and who cannot stand back.
Let us say that someone says something that we disagree with, or that hurts us in some way, and we feel our anger rising. After some time, however, we cool down. While we might still disagree with what the person says – or we might still feel hurt – we choose how we respond so that we will get our point across but will not increase the negative emotional energy. What we call cooling down is an example of our mind/body moving from the subjective to the objective. (Think of Dad’s options again in this post).
Is this website subjective or objective?
Well, I think it is a bit of both. You will probably have noticed that there is a fair amount of subjectivity – in the sense that I am strongly biased towards reality – I feel very strongly that we need to be real when we describe issues that affect us deeply, but in the description itself we need to be objective.
Take, for example, my decision to include a Sub-Chapter on corporate closed-ness. It is because I feel so strongly about its influence in community work that I include it at all and then choose to give it a particular slant. However, in my description of the topic I was aware of the need to steer clear of it becoming a them-and-us kind of rant………
In working towards solutions in this area of work I am biased towards two-way knowledge flow and this, I’d say, also comes through strongly. This is because of my subjective experience, and what I observe when I stand back.
But overall, I hope that I have been reasonably objective in my analysis of how we might design an effective response to difficult problems that beset society.