“To trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet and anxiety attend the unknown — the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states and the first principle is that any explanation is better than none.., what drives this addiction and excitement is the feeling of fear…”
–Friedrich Nietzsche
Most of what we think and do is locked in place by explanations based on past experience and justify long-held points of view. These explanations give the illusion of certainty and allow us to avoid the discomfort and anxiety inherent in raising fundamental questions. Transformation, a fundamental shift in genre, arises from awareness born of stepping into the unknown.
John Mauldin in his “Notes from the Front Line,” points out that behavioral psychologists say the process of explaining actually releases chemicals in the brain that make us feel good. We literally become addicted to the simple explanation. The fact that our explanations may be irrelevant or even wrong is not important for the chemical release.
Jonathan Lewis Smith says that, “most people, when faced with uncertainty, need the ‘fix’ of their already adopted explanation to feel secure. The imagery of a junky blindly following his ‘feel good’ could easily be linked to the stubbornness we see in politics, among other things.”
So, we eagerly look for more unnecessary explanations in order to feel good.
Types of Explanation
1. An opinion about something that’s physically occurring, has occurred, or is expected to occur
2. A direct or indirect self-justification
3. A direct or indirect justification for something or someone one is associated with.
4. A belief about something where you have faith in its existence
5. A statement designed to confirm a pre-existing point of view
6. A statement designed to comfort or reduce fear in the speaker or others
7. A statement designed to influence, manipulate, convince others in order to sell something – idea, product or service
8. A statement designed to keep people in power in power
9. A statement designed to entertain, as well as be accurate
10. A statement designed simply to entertain
11. A statement designed to distract attention from something else
12. A statement designed to produce internal enzymatic/ hormonal secretions that are comforting and addictive
13. A statement designed to affirm aspects of identity or behavior or attitude by which one has heretofore survived
14. Explanations that affirm, justify, legitimize or warrant cultural or systemic imperatives (rules of the game)
15. Statements which once believed, become the context of future thinking and action
16. Statements to make yourself look good and someone else look bad
17. Statements that make yourself right & others wrong
18. Statements that result in avoiding the domination of other points of view
19. Statements that make you feel less afraid
20. Statements that keep one from experiencing the future as scary
21. Statements that stop inquiry into the topic at hand
22. Statements that leave/assume boundaries are legitimately controlled by authorities
23. Statements, attitudes that suck/drain energy out of people or a system
24. Statements, norms, rules that suppress imagination, creativity, innovation
25. Statements that suppress fundamental domains of operating: being-doing-having, possibility-action-results
26. Explanations that suppress thinking, feeling, self expression
More types of explanations are welcome.