more reflections on Rashamon
For reasons that aren’t necessary to go into here (ooh – indeliberately building an air of mystery), I’ve been thinking about Rashamon phenomena. And these reflections have been centered on one aspect of these phenomena, namely the distinction between the active and the passive.
Previously, we’ve described Rashamon phenomena as a thing that happens, where different people view a single event or single object in some general sense, and see different things. But this is a very passive view of the phenomena. The next question then becomes, how to make active use of these phenomena.
So what do I mean by this. Knowing that these phenomena exist and knowing that they are somewhat common, perhaps very common, how can we take advantage of these phenomena.
The first way I can see of making use of these phenomena is to help me structure my arguments and my proposals, when I argue points of fact or interpretation or when I put forward a proposal.
Knowing that people will view these arguments and proposals differently than I intend, and knowing that people will view them differently from one another, regardless of how much I try and put myself into other peoples’ shoes, means that I need to be be very careful in how I put those arguments and proposals together and how I shop them around before making formal proposals.
But I think it should be possible to do more. And this is where I’m exploring. How can I take what I know about Rashamon and use it in an active way. What I’ve described just above, while prudent and helpful, is actually also passive in terms of the phenomenon itself. It’s informing my actions, but it’s not really shaping them.
I find this sort of exploration interesting. I’m not entirely sure where it will take me but I know that I’ll enjoy the journey. We’ll see where it takes me.
multijimbo 