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From time to time we encounter something, a narrative perhaps, which somehow seems a bit “off”. We don’t at first know why, but that feeling, that intuition of being “off” remains. Sometimes we can sweep that feeling under the carpet sometimes it persists and nags. That intuition can be reasoned away. But subsequently can be found to be true. The wife had an almost guttural reaction to Jimmy Savile way before he was found out, I thought he was a weird tosser and could not see why he was famous. Her guttural reaction was more “on the money”. Feminine intuition differs from masculine. It notices different things.

If we are being sold a lie, a porky, a piece of bullshit we may discount that notion if the vendor is well respected or in a position of trust. We may discount what our intuition is telling us, “it could not be possible”, “they never would..”

It does not stop that initial feeling of being “off”. Something does not “ring true” there is some internal inconsistency, it simply does not hang together as a whole. This is perhaps the movie detective’s hunch which allows the evolution of a disbelief based dramatic story line. The person who notices something is “off”,  is disbelieved because there is not clear evidence. In the end the plot shows the hunch to be at least partially true. The dramatic narrative suggests that we need to trust our hunches.

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As a rule many people favour “reason” and “justification” over intuition and hunch. Needless to say most dramatic discoveries both scientific and otherwise come from intuition not stepwise reasoning. Intuition hints at discovery and investigation and reason follows. It is nearly always this way around.

Sweeping away that feeling that something is “off” can have many consequences down the line. Often these feelings of being “off” are inconvenient, socio-politically difficult. Were we to pursue them there may be social risk.

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“John Lydon says he was ‘banned from BBC’ over Jimmy Savile comments

The former Sex Pistol says he ‘did his bit’ to alert the public to Savile but that his comments made in 1978 were never aired.”

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Society closes around its famous people. Even when more and more people notice something is “off”. The powers that be find it hard to believe, accept and then act upon. Nearly always “wisdom” is retrospective and much additional harm is done because of complacency. Establishment protects establishment.

People do not want to accept it when something is “off”…even though the intuition may be close to screaming about it…

This feeling of something being “off” can sometimes be wrong. The reason of “it not being real” {or proven} is more widespread. Complacency inhibits taking intuitions seriously.

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Do you trust your intuition when you have a feeling of something being “off”?

Must there always be six sigma proof?

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