We tend to believe just what we want to believe.  And, then we carefully congregate with others of like mind and persuasion.  I read somewhere years ago that “our thinking is the belated rationalization of conclusions which we have already been lead to be our desires.”  So, there is our “thought system” and beneath the surface is the real “reality”, our unconscious needs and desires.

So, how can we be “objective”?  Well, we can’t.  That is the point.  We must always realize that we are not being objective and neither are “they”.  We can, then, with a little bit of luck and a strong tail wind, be a little less arrogant and a little more tolerant of difference when we run into it.  Although, we usually try to avoid difference and isolate ourself into that safe world comprised of people who think and behave just as we do.  Relevant to this, W. H. Auden onced noted, “We have made for ourselves a life safer than we can bear.”