# Words and Progress By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2022-12-18 Ideas and belief systems have many levels of understanding. For example, many people say they believe in democracy. The surface understanding of this idea roughly equates to each person having a vote. Cultural understanding equates democracy to individual rights and equality. The post-modern understanding is that the idea of democracy is easily manipulated by those with power and doesn't exist anyways. Which of these understandings is correct? They all have some valid points, but some are deeper and more complex than others. Yet, we still use the same words to describe it. A person who only thinks of democracy as voting calls democracy the same thing as the post-modernist. This dynamic is interesting as it can simultaneously cause confusion and alignment. The confusion comes from the differences in understanding. The alignment comes from using the same words to roughly represent the core ideas. People still march in the street together for democracy even if they aren't all operating on the same level. This happens all of the time in society. For example, does not knowing how the Internet really works mean you can't use it? Not at all. In large part, we should be grateful that many things operate this way. However, don't forget that alignment does not mean that confusion doesn't exist. It does, and it'll show up just when progress is about to be made. The question is how we manage the natural confusion and disagreements. Do we ignore them and focus on the alignment, or do we call people out on their simplistic understanding? Option one is manipulative and reductionist, while option two is elitist and unproductive. Coming up with the third option is the challenge constantly facing humanity. #### Related Items [[Paradigms]] [[Understanding]] [[Beliefs]] [[Progress]] [[Systems Thinking]]