Once, there were two blind monks in a monastery, high up in the Himalayas.
One of them approached his teacher with the question: “What does colour green feel like?”
Having thought for some time and not wanting to disappoint the monk, the teacher reaches for a metaphor: “It’s soft as silk.”
Satisfied with the answer, the monk returns to his meditation.
The next day, the second blind monk approached the teacher with the same question.
The teacher picks another metaphor this time: “It’s smooth like marble.”
However, after a few days, the teacher finds both of them quarrelling over what the colour green feels like. One is sure that it is as soft as silk, while the other is sure it is as smooth as marble.
The problem isn’t that the teacher lied. The problem was color cannot be understood by touch. It’s simply misplaced attribution, a “Category Error.”
A category error happens when we apply the logic, concern, or responsibility of one domain to another where it simply doesn’t belong.
Few more examples:
- What does Tuesday taste like?
- How heavy is your opinion?
- Or, this one – “Let’s save the planet”
Save the Planet?
Is Earth really a fragile, dependent system, looking up to human beings for its self-preservation?
Save the planet is the most dangerous category error we live with, because we assume that Earth’s fate revolves around human intention. Whereas, in reality, our fate revolves around this Earth’s indifference to any species.
It’s humbling to know that recent estimates suggest that 99.9% of all species that ever walked on Earth are extinct.
Many of them just vanishing in the blink of an eye, on a timescale the Earth operates on.
Akin to the monk believing the colour green is smooth like marble, we refuse to step down from the pedestal as the guardians of the planet.
This category error is the root cause of the disconnect between our intention and action, and why we have failed to stop: the mindless consumerism, the senseless erosion of landscape, or the utter disrespect we show to our fellow companion species.
Why shy away from what we actually want and need to save: the human race.
“Save human beings” is not only intellectually honest but also a first step to getting down from that pedestal and looking at the reality staring us in the face.
The planet is resilient beyond imagination; we are not.
The first step is in recognising that each of us is an agent, capable of making a difference through how we consume, what we consume, and the choices we make.
Let’s stop the pretence and focus our efforts on saving the human race.
Earth will survive our extinction.
The question is whether we will survive our intelligence.
🍪 Fortune Cookie:
Most damage isn’t caused by bad intentions… It’s caused by wrongly held beliefs.
Eibira helps surface category errors early, so short-term comfort doesn’t masquerade as long-term good, and personal ease isn’t mistaken for collective survival.
Each skill on Eibira is designed to help us gain meaningful clarity, align actions with our values, and live responsibly over the long arc of time.
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Nikhil Kabadi 