this--when we feel hurt, threatened, or angered by a person, people-group, opinion, or situation, we instinctively look through the lens of self-defense. It's like looking at something through the sights of a gun--it's a narrow perspective framed in fear and held in hostility. Such a perspective is certainly not the full or true perspective. But if we are dualistic, non-contemplative people, we will think of our highly limited perspective as total truth. It's all we can see. This is the black-and-white world where everything is framed as win-or-lose, us-versus-them.