By the age of three to four, you have learned the great value of dishonesty.
Even if you yes The person who spreads all the toilet paper onto the floor, you know that parents may believe it is someone else, and that is a better outcome for you. So you say you didn’t do that, hoping they take this fake version of reality and never know the difference.
The fact is a useful and beautiful thing, but it can easily conflict with other interests, i.e. feel safe from unnecessary attention or letting others do things for you.
Deception – or at least attribute truth to other interests – is instinctive. I have clear memories of the six-year-old and have fun in the town pool with a friend of mine. We were talking about how deep the water was, and he said his dad could touch the bottom because he was seven feet tall. I said my father could do it, too, because he was eight feet tall.
Now, I don’t actually know how tall my dad is, but I know he may not be taller than Wilt Chamberlain. Why do I say that? I think I feel I was challenged to some extent and it is important to deal with my friend’s positive claims about the height of his father’s advantage. I don’t think I’m just lying. What I mean does not seem to be particularly important.
Humans are like the idea of truth, but you may notice that facts are getting faster and faster when there is anything that can be gained or lost. By saying what makes you feel safest, you can protect your position, the instinct of real or hypothetical. This drive doesn’t have much to do with real things and often doesn’t find the truth at the bottom of the problem – kids will argue whether Freddy Krueger is better than Jason Voorhees.
One day, I walked up on the playground with a different friend and asked people whether it was better for Coca-Cola or Pepsi. For some reason, I was a staunch Coca-Cola guerrilla at the time. Maybe it’s just the one my family bought.
The survey results are about 30 to 5, which is beneficial to Coke, which is extremely proof. Whenever a child says Coke, “YESS!” will appear in my heart.
I was so excited about that end result, and my joy had nothing to do with understanding of reality. For example, if I believe older kids like Pepsi and younger kids like Coca-Cola, then I will definitely ask most young kids. Obviously, I want to do more than I want to know what is right. I’m right!
We won’t get rid of this situation. Humanity meanslessly transcends its partisan interests and transforms into a sober and selfless affinity for seeking truth. Knowing what is really secondary is at best to feel safe and improve the location of the tribe and the other lower levels of the Maslow pyramid.
Activists and experts choose slogans and simplified conversation points rather than cautious, sincere arguments because they can convince more people. Academics want their own theories to be proof of evidence, not others’ theories – despite the evidence. Scientific discoveries are discussed selectively, hacked regularly, and exaggerated with clickable headlines and puff fragments. Red wine is good for you! Floss is a waste of time! Wow!
Whenever identity, money, or some other form of personal interest is threatened (almost always when someone makes a claim for truth), truth may be at best a second priority. Of course, this does not mean that they are incorrect. Proving that something is true may be a means of gaining status, money or advantage. Having a product that actually works makes it much easier to sell it.
It makes sense that we develop this instinct of truth. In most cases, the value of survival is considered to be correct than it is actually correct. Supporting your tribe is better than the right but unpopular ones. This is why even the emotional rewards you feel are extremely attractive and satisfying even if you do something wrong. We crave it just as we crave honey, fat, and avoid rain.
Humans do value truth, but they don’t have as much as other things.
Note that you desire to know the truth
You can notice the power of your desire to verify your behavior.
After arguing with someone, when you look for a claim in question, be aware whether your heart is looking for defense or education. It may not be eager to deepen your understanding of the subject. It wants the knockout conversation point you are in. It wants a sexy chart that shocks the other person.
You may also notice that we tend to help most of what we say. We have played the importance and certainty of the assertion. The books you like are not only fun, but also Amazing. Maybe it’s real “It may be true, although it may be indeed “absolute” things. People naturally want their stories to have an impact on others, so it is hard not to give it more flash, or at least less efficient than truth than actually possessed.
Now, think about the influence of everyone on the planet that has been doing this, especially when it comes to making money and generating political power. Humans develop delusions like cattle and produce methane.
What’s worse is that we have too much interest in ourselves. Humans want to believe that things are as impressive, terrible, simple or meaningful as they first appear. Check out any AI Slop videos, fake news articles or comments under staged pranks. The endless commenters were dazzled, surprised, shocked, defended. Anyone who expresses skepticism is scolded as Killjoy – “Jeez, you’ll be fun at the party!”
For the record, I totally believe another child said his father was seven feet tall. He is a good kid. Me too. I thought he was just sharing an interesting fact. For all the spins and nonsense there, most assertions are simply believed.
Marathon with donuts
All of this is why I say it’s really hard for humans to figure out what they are really outside of their immediate existence. We talk about a lot of topics, but we are not the great housekeepers of the truth at all.
It takes a lot of work to form responsible opinions on a single issue. You have to do some reading to collect some initial truth claims, then find counterclaims and counterattacks, and then clarify the muddy parts until you feel very confident. Finally, what can you choose seem Yes, because your evidence has always been human. We don’t have the instinct to do this kind of work, nor a culture that encourages it, so it remains a rather unpopular activity.
The job that tries to get into trouble is slow and emotionally unpleasant. You have to continue trying to fake your current position, which means always falling into unpleasant feelings – chaos, self-doubt, and shame and fear of questioning tribal purpose. Entertainment in your mind the contradictory moral stance feels similar to disgust – the brain desperately wants to stand up.
And, you must volunteer for these bad feelings while enjoying the sweet fruit of verification through confident headlines and partisan reports, all designed to reward you for your existing worldview. True truth Seeking for truth is as attractive as choosing a marathon, and the other option is the free Krispy Kreme donuts.
Marathons will never sell like donuts. We really like snacks that this creature catches easily, rather than practices that cause nausea with obscure rewards.
Since my unruly experiment is over, I have been overwhelmed with how to move forward. I don’t want to get out of the day’s problem forever, but I don’t want to go back and study a hundred issues again, inevitably absorbing the strong opinions that donut vendors sell to me.
If a lot of work is required to form responsible opinions on one issue, how do people “keep what’s going on in the world?” How do you “keep the top?” How do you join a hundred marathon at a time?
You don’t. In the Information Age, the worldview covers hundreds of topics and events that can only be overwhelmingly made by aggregating donuts – the stories and partisan conversation points just now, never really refuted. People do have one or two specialized first-hand knowledge sometimes, but that’s not where most of our discourses come from.
However, you can compete in a marathon at a time. Instead of investing in a question or question, you can ignore all other questions for weeks or months, rather than getting deeper into the query rather than broader.
This is what I plan to do now, not return to the mass media donut trough. I delve into a question every month, trying to answer my questions, looking for the best rebuttals, trying to build 3D pictures of at least the main angle, ignoring everything else.
It doesn’t sound attractive now! Maybe it’s so boring and unpleasant that I’ll be back to the donut supplier right away. That is completely natural; at least in my culture, seeking truth is a niche benefit to humanity. This is not the core value of humanity, but a nerd, selective hobby, such as distance running. This may sound easy, but I think that’s where we are.
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Further Reading: No one knows what happened
