People have perceptions of situations, and whether their perception is correct or incorrect that perception is what will lead them to making a particular decision. The problem is that seemingly more and more the perceptions that people in this country and the world have, are not founded in fact and thereby are leading us to make decisions that are both foolish and wrong.

We could probably leave it at that, it's fairly straight forward, but does little to actually help anything. For instance it won't change the perception that some of you may have misconceived about the same issues, or it may leave you without that actual factual knowledge to back up your strongly held perceptions.

I cite something that happened to me just today as an example. I was helping a woman fix a computer issue, and when I suggested that the problem may have occurred because of a flaw in Internet Explorer she replied, "if there were bugs like that in IE, Microsoft would gone down long ago." It was her perception that because Microsoft is a large prospering business that it would be unlikely that there would be problems with it's internet browser. Now whatever you think of IE or Microsoft the truth remains that there is no such thing as perfect software, and for whatever reason people are shocked when I tell them things need to be kept up to date because their perception is that in order to be shipped to customers the product must be flawless. Why do you think there are new versions of things coming out anyway?

Politicians are constantly playing off of people's perceptions. On this occasion it's the Democrats raising minimum wage and the perception is that this will decrease poverty. The truth is that the vast majority of people on minimum wage are teenagers in decent income homes and that the vast majority of them get a raise within the first six months of working on the job.

The perception of the war in Iraq is that are troops are being slaughtered in an unjust war by Iraqis who don't want us in their homeland and while I'm sure some Iraqis don't want us there, and I bet most don't so much like the violence or the military rule they're undergoing most seem to be quite happy with the fact that Saddam got a short drop and a sudden stop. As for those who are fighting him, yes some are Iraqis but I think that it's a bit more important to note those crossing the borders from other Arab nations to fight against us, including but not limited to Iranian military who just recently attacked coalition troops in Iraq. Now correct me if I'm wrong but as I see it that's an act of war, you don't just send specially trained covert military against the United States and get away with it...or wait maybe Iran just did.

What shapes these perceptions though? Truth be told it's everything from that annoying teacher you couldn't stand, to the one you totally agreed with, to that movie you watched last week and the news you saw the week before. Everything we take in adjusts the way we see the world, and all the while we manage to miss what's really going on. Oh not everyone of course, but somehow the vast majority of people are duped into believing what they want to believe. Why, because its what they want. If sunshine and lollipops is what they want that's what they'll get, and if doom and gloom is what they want they can get that too.

The problem is that like so many other things the truth is somewhere in the middle. Software isn't perfect but it still is pretty useful, a minimum wage hike isn't going to help poverty nor is it going to destroy the economy and maybe sticking with the free market is the way to go, Iraq isn't a quagmire nor is it a shining bed of roses. We as people, throughout the world could stand to see things as they really are. Yes there is right and wrong, on and off, 1's and 0's, but that doesn't mean that every situation we encounter is either the worst it can be nor the best. As we go through our lives lets try to keep our heads about us before we lead ourselves down a path we don't want to go all because we forget that there is such a thing as the truth.