Truth, Power, and Perception: Reclaiming the Questions We're Allowed to Ask

Amber Howard
Jun 15
3 min read

Updated: Jun 20

Before we even know our own name, we’re born into a web of inherited conversations.

We learn what’s right and wrong, what’s possible and impossible, who we are and who we should be—all through a network of language, expectations, and beliefs that we didn’t choose, but were handed. These aren’t just opinions we can take or leave. They form the background hum of our lives, so constant and familiar that we often don’t even notice it’s there.

These are networks of conversations—and they are powerful. Not because they’re true, but because they shape the lens through which we see everything.

What Are Networks of Conversations?

I first encountered the idea of “networks of conversations” in the Wisdom Unlimited course, and it gave me words for something I had felt but couldn’t quite name.

Imagine the world as a stage, and before we ever step onto it, the script has already been written. The set is built. The lighting cues are set. We’re given lines to memorize about race, gender, money, power, success, beauty, and belonging. We inherit family stories, cultural assumptions, media soundbites, religious teachings, educational systems—all of it forming the conversation in which our lives occur.

We don’t just inherit thoughts—we inherit the limits of thought. Most of us are not thinking freely. We are recycling.

Perception vs. Truth

We’re taught to believe in something called “truth,” but what we often call truth is simply widely accepted perception—repeated often enough, and with enough authority, that it becomes invisible.

But what if your view of the world isn't the world, but a version of it sculpted by power?What if the way you see yourself—your worth, your potential, your limits—wasn’t something you decided, but something you inherited?

And more importantly:

What if the most dangerous thing these conversations steal from us is not our freedom to speak, but our freedom to ask?

The Real Loss: The Questions We Never Think to Ask

These networks don’t just shape what we say, think, or do. They shape what we think to question—and what we don’t.

Why is history taught the way it is?
Who decides what makes news?
Why are certain bodies seen as dangerous or desirable?
Who benefits from me feeling like I’m not enough?
Why do I believe what I believe about money, success, or “reality” itself?

Often, the most powerful systems of control don’t silence us—they narrow our curiosity. They make it so we don’t even think to look beyond the frame.

Inquiring Differently: 5 Practices

If we want to reclaim our minds, we have to learn to ask better questions. Here are five ways to begin:

Ask: “Who benefits if I believe this?” Every belief supports a system. Follow the power.
Notice where you shut down. When something feels immediately “crazy” or “wrong,” pause. What inherited story is reacting?
Spend time with unfamiliar perspectives. Read a book, watch a documentary, or talk to someone whose worldview challenges yours.
Practice not knowing. Sit in the discomfort of not having answers. This is where new vision is born.
Create a question journal. Write down the questions that shake you. Let them breathe. Don’t rush to resolve them.

The Courage to Receive New Knowledge

Receiving truth that challenges the network you inherited can feel like dying. And in a way, it is—the death of old certainty. But on the other side is the birth of something rare and powerful: your own seeing.

If you’re willing to be with the discomfort, if you’re willing to stay open even when your worldview trembles, then something miraculous begins to happen. You start to remember who you were before the script. Before the limits. Before the fear.

You begin to reclaim your freedom—not just to say or do something new, but to see in ways you never imagined possible.