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Common confusions cause social dizziness

There is no doubt we live in a confusing and confused world, where frequently something is thought to be something different from what it is. For example, very often physical presence is confused with actual work.

Until just a few decades ago, it was true that to work for a company you had to be physically presence at the company’s office, but not anymore. In our globalized and hyper-connected world, physical presence is in many cases not longer required to work for a company.

Of course, communication is indispensable, but physical presence (except, of course, for some physical tasks) is not. For that reason, it is interesting to see how many people still confuse physical presence with work.

In my opinion, those who suffer of that confusion generally also promote some kind of inactivity among their employees, because the employees spend more time looking at the clock than actually working

The confusion between physical presence and work could easily be extended to other areas. For example, people confuse going to church (or any other religious center) with having a good spiritual life, and, therefore, they also confuse not going to church with not having a good spiritual life.

I believe spirituality is not restricted to a certain building or to a certain set of ideas, practices, or traditions.

In a similar way, people often confuse going to school or college with getting an education. This confusion is so deeply rooted in our minds that if a student is not succeeding at school we immediately blame the student. Perhaps that’s not the case.

In my opinion, the educational system is in need of an urgent reform similar to the reform of the immigration system, because both systems are failing.

Another common confusion is the confusion between communication and sending information.  I have seen teachers, pastors, and public relations professionals, among others, who believe that because they send a message, distribute brochures, or print a newsletter they are actually communicating. Communication, of course, is more than dissemination of information.

To the long list of confusions, we should add the confusion between voting and democracy (voting is a key element of democracy, but not the only one), the confusion of “new” with “better,” the confusion of old times with good times, and the confusion of youth with ignorance (inexperience, yes; ignorance, no.)

However, the biggest confusion, the one that makes my head spin and makes me dizzy, is the confusion between alien (foreigner, immigrant) and non-human. I am not exaggerating. During a recent conversation with non-Latino college students about immigration, several of them told me they never thought about immigrants as human.

Many of those students truly believed that only those born in the country of parents also born in the country were legally in the country and everybody else was an “illegal” alien, a non-human entity.

Perhaps all those confusions are rooted in the same mega-confusion: the confusion of believing reality is real. Let’s stop philosophizing before we get even more confused.

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