As I peck at my keyboard on the uppermost floor of Green Library, my lenses are smudged with fingerprints. Through the window I see the tops of the palm trees against a background of generous blue and sun-dappled stone; I see students, ponder their stories and rejoice in the motley splendor of difference. I wipe my glasses clean.
We have a duty to view the world not only with objectivity, but also through borrowed perspectives across the spectrum of subjectivity. Egalitarian perception is an essential prerequisite to the evaluation and eventual resolution of any issue; it follows that the failure to honestly consider multiple facets of a problem is a choice to distance oneself from the remedy.
The inherently human tendency to hold steadily to a conviction, however baseless or substantial the premise, has given rise to the loudly lamented partisanship, religiocentrism and general intolerance that plagues us today. I do not claim to approach each issue with an unequivocally blank slate, as it is difficult to separate oneself from the influence, or fingerprints, if you will, of lessons gleaned from personal experience. I do, however, place importance on awareness of, respect for and true consideration of opinions radically divergent from my own. After careful and fair deliberation, the responsible perceiver is free to change or maintain the color of his or her lenses; the ubiquity of different identities and perspectives, as well as their collaboration, is immeasurably valuable to mankind.
While the concept of regarding all aspects of an issue or opinion is not novel, it is certainly undervalued. I came upon this conclusion in the years leading up to my first year at Stanford. As a Muslim and first-generation American student at a Catholic high school in Texas, I was blessed to be immersed in two cultures with an extensive knowledge of two beautiful faiths. I became keenly aware of the biases, deeply imbedded as they were, that worked to close the doors of collaboration between different groups of people. And I looked on with disbelief as the opportunity to celebrate the incredible value of difference was perceived by many through a religiocentric lens, and an uninformed one at that. It would have been more effective to attempt to view the world through a blindfold.
Responsible perception gives way to responsible action, and relishing the diversity that makes Stanford great is an excellent means of promoting a culture of open-mindedness. It is imperative that we consider the myriad of points of view around us if we hope to employ our respective versions of a Stanford education to make a significant contribution to the world. So I implore you to listen, engage in open dialogue, explore uncharted reaches of your personal paradigms or those of others, challenge your perceptions and value the commonalities and differences of the human experience. If there is a community that can and must stand at the vanguard of a movement for conscientious perception, it is ours.
Contact Alizeh Ahmad at alizeha ‘at’ stanford.edu.