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The story of attribution begins with Hamlet?
Hamlet:
What have you, my good friends, deserv'd at the hands of
Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
Guildenstern:
Prison, my lord?
Hamlet:
Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz:
Then is the world one.
Hamlet:
A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
Rosencrantz:
We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet:
Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 239–251
PEOPLE ATTRIBUTE MEANING to actions by others using their own
lens...Take this quote from:
Kindness. It's Sexy, Righteous & Powerful. Is it a part of
your strategy?
"By contrast, I met others who stayed busy checking their cell
phones or looking around the room as they feigned
conversation. One, the manager of a well-known show host, even
sneered at my offer to send him my novel,Heaven,
for a possible interview."
ALL of us see the world through our own lens... There is no
other way to look.
In doing that, our filters "attribute" (we have too for many
reasons) meaning.
So, all the meaning we make is LOADED with our attributions.
MOST OF WHICH, at best, is slanted, at worst, just plain
wrong.
The attribution however has one more element...a
"self-hugging" element.
This emeges from ego complexity and is designed (naturally) to
"protect" the natural inborn system--NOT BAD!
In so doing, this ego complex using the inborn filters,
categorizes meaning very quickly, dumps it into hoppers, that
get created through this same mechanism on the fly, and over
time, based on "attributions" we make to what we perceive.
This is critical to understand.
In the quote, the person assumes that those folks doing stuff
"outside" their "category of:
"... Peace, patience, love, joy, truth, kindness, gratitude,
forgiveness, generosity, trust, faithfulness, self-control...are sexy, righteous &
powerful."
When i look at this person's "values attribution" which is
emergent from their inborn filters/attribution system... It's
easy to see why this person attributes meaning the way they
do-->NOT WRONG!
BUT, while the story teller uses this to make his point, it's
most likely entirely flawed.
I actually fit his description of the person's he called to
account...i am NOT any of those things naturally in his values
attribution, yet John attributed this to me?
Mike,
This blog post made me think of you. Even though you say you
are not a warm fuzzy person you continually show kindness to
people.
Both at home and abroad. You are what the author describes as
power-full as opposed to powerful.
Enjoy and embrace,
John
While I do take this to "heart" from John, I am careful to
take a perspective on his "attribution" and note that there
are reasons that John made this, and those might not all be
known from his remarks, but follow a context, which most of
you would be missing. Thus you might believe John, or
attribute meaning the way he does--AND THAT'S OK, I am
flattered, but also take that with a grain of salt as
well...because none of you, or anyone, knows the context which
generates my behaviors.
I do believe that John and the author are correct, however in
attributed higher levels of "power" to indirect and oblique
"power-ful" behavior and for me, that is important, as it
provides me with validation of my own attribution which is
similar, in order to get to the "next" level of power, one
must give it away.
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