Instead of imagining we are digging down to find supposed universal foundational truths that are untarnished by any bias, we need a new construct.
Imagine a spider web. Or envision a braided-rope hammock.
Each belief and value and philosophy we hold is a strand of the web, or a thread of the hammock. The more places that each belief and value connect with each other, the more it all interrelates and interlocks, and the stronger the whole thing becomes.
When our beliefs and values touch and connect and are supported by an observable fact, or data point, or some experience in our physical and social world, it’s like a web or hammock connecting to a tree or a fence post for stability. It becomes, not just strong on its own, but rooted and connected and supported by what we see, taste, and touch. Our beliefs are situated and grounded. Our beliefs are connected with those whom we work, and laugh, and argue—by those we love, and serve, and sometimes battle.
No one is born without a spider web, in some blank, empty space to create. We aren’t individuals spinning a web of beliefs out of nothing. In fact, we were born hanging from and supported by a particular web, a web which our parents and our community created. Our web is different than other webs across the meadow or across the ocean. Our experience of the world, and the things which hold us up and support us, are all culturally biased.
Some of us are born into more functional webs than others. And some of us are born near the center of our particular cultural web, where many connections support us safely and strongly, while others of us are born on the outside of our particular cultural web, with only a weak strand to hold tightly to, and where predators wait to devour.
Even on the same web, we have different experiences and different beliefs.
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