Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [51]
When the sexual liberation movement was launched in modern America, it was rather widely assumed that sexually promiscuous people are more emotionally healthy and stable than their "straight" neighbors; in other words, that the former do not need the crutch of traditional morality but can choose their behavior freely and independently. Actually, though supported by the existence of sexually oriented magazines, books, and films and by the mood of the time that sexual "rules" are narrow and restricting, there was no evidence linking promiscuity to emotional health. The assumption was probably grounded more in wishful thinking or acceptance of others' wishful thinking than any experience or evidence. In other words, it was unwarranted. (At least one study suggests that sexual promiscuity is the reverse of what was assumed: not a sign of strength but of deficiency. Dr. I. Emery Breitner claims the eighty-eight promiscuous people he studied were lonely people looking for companionship and approval and using sex as the means to find it. He terms them "love addicts.")4
One of the most common unwarranted assumptions is that the present European and American concept of childhood has always existed. Europeans and Americans' only reason for taking it for granted is that they have been familiar with that concept since their own earliest years. That, of course, is not sufficient reason. Naturally the concept is familiar to them. But they have not experienced living and thinking in 3000 B.C. or in A.D. 1500, so they have no warrant to assume that people in those times shared all our concepts and values. Indeed, the barest contact with history give ample suggestions that concepts and values change.
Was our concept of childhood shared by our ancestors back to the beginning of humanity? No. on the contrary, it is a relatively recent idea, dating back only a few centuries. Before that children were not considered to be different from adults in their nature and needs. As painting and sculpture of various times reveal, children were thought of as little adults.5
Very likely much of the tension between young people and their parents could be eliminated by a clearer understanding of how dramatically attitudes toward children have changed. As in so many situation however, such understanding can be reached only when the prevailing assumption is recognized and found unwarranted.
RECOGNIZING UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS
It is not too difficult to evaluate an assumption and decide whether or not it is warranted. The real difficulty is in identifying it in the first place. The reason for this is that, unlike the other problems in thinking we have discussed, assumptions are usually unexpressed. To recognize the assumptions in your thinking and the thinking of others, develop the habit of reading (and listening) between the lines. In other words, become sensitive to those ideas that are not stated but are nevertheless clearly implied. Consider this dialog:
Cloris: I really don't understand why people make such a fuss about violence in films.
Mavis: they say that violent films harm viewers.
Cloris: That's silly. I've watched them all my life, and I've never done anything violent.
Cloris reasons that if she has watched violent films all her life yet hasn't done anything violent, violence in films can't be harmful. That reasoning reveals two assumptions Cloris may be unaware of. The first is that the only conceivable way for film violence to harm people is by making them violent. Is that assumption warranted? No. there is another way that film violence could conceivably do harm: by making people insensitive to others' pain and complacent about violence in real life. The second assumption is that Cloris's experience is necessarily typical. This assumption is also unwarranted because, unlike Cloris, others may have been led to violence by viewing film violence.
APPLICATIONS
Examine each of the