The Most Important Lesson of All

Last week we were a nation divided. Whilst some of us argued over the colour of a dress, there were others who despaired that, at a time in our history when freedom of speech is under attack and men are being thrown from buildings and stoned to death because of the way they were born, our press should focus on such a ‘trivial’ issue.    

But the story of #TheDress was far from trivial. The arguments shone a dazzling spotlight on a truth that too few people accept.  It’s important because those who are most intolerant of the views of others will kill and die rather than accept the truth of it.  

What was that lesson?

Two or more people can see the same thing and yet interpret it completely differently. And it doesn’t mean that one of them is wrong, just that their perception is different.

In PR, the difference in perception is something we try to anticipate and work into our plans.  It is why, at Onyx, we are deliberately building an eclectic team; that way we have a better chance of anticipating different perceptions. But in all my life I have never seen such an unambiguous and miraculous example. 

It was like an experiment where all the usual control factors had already been eliminated. There were no emotional or environmental reasons that even the experts could attribute to that difference in perception. You couldn’t say that someone was evil, ignorant or stupid because they had a different perception from you.  

It simply existed, alone and unexplained, so we gazed in bewilderment at the lesson in front of our eyes, trying to come to terms with just how differently we could view the same photo from the person sitting next to us.

If that difference exists, on something that should be straightforward, none of us should ever be too confident that our views are any more valid than the next person’s.  It is why democracy and tolerance are so important.  The lesson of the ‘lilac and beige’ dress should give us all pause for thought.  It should make us all stop and reconsider our approach and attitude to those who disagree with us.