My cat refuses all medications because she doesn’t understand their benefits. Nothing could make her understand that squirting the bitter liquid into her mouth would prevent her from contracting intestinal worms.
So I had to wrap her in a towel like a burrito so she couldn’t resist. I’m sure she thought it was an act of senseless cruelty.
I had to deceive her to do this due to her misguided views and suspicious nature. Experts say that to get a cat who refuses modern medicine to eat a towel burrito, lay the towel flat on the floor for a day or two, leaving an occasional treat in between. The cat will soon start wandering around the towel, eventually lying on it, waiting for it to produce its magical bounty. Then you activate the trap.
Even after that, the cat still adores the mysterious, treat-providing towel. It’s been two years since I’ve had to give my cat medicine, but she’ll still be wary of any towel lying flat somewhere, with hopeful eyes. I turned her into a kind of one-cat cargo cult.
Of course, I can clearly see how she misunderstood the situation. The light of my knowledge illuminated her dark places. I knew I was giving her important medication; she thought I was humiliating her for no reason.
In hindsight, it yes Maybe she’s right and I’m wrong. Maybe this dewormer was snake oil and was sold to me by a dishonest veterinarian and I was just shaming her because I believed that if you didn’t spray this special formula into your cat’s mouth, the cat would get “worms” in its body. Who are the cultists now?
Indeed, I could do some research to assess this possibility. I didn’t because I already felt like I knew it.
The job of belief is to look like reality
If you try to remember the moment you “knew” something, you often can’t pinpoint it. You may remember reading it somewhere, or hearing it said. You’re unlikely to get it from an impeccable chain of logic and deduction, anyway.
If a new idea seems to fit with something else you’ve read or heard, it may immediately become normative for your worldview. Now it’s just another thing you “know” whether it’s true or not.
Beliefs are tricky because they are just ideas, but they blend into reality like a chameleon. If you wake up on Thursday and believe that today is Friday, this is what you will experience like any other fridayuntil the moment you stop believing it’s Friday. The role of faith is to represent truth, to look and feel exactly like truth, whether or not it ultimately corresponds to reality.
Everyone is the only exception to the rule
To stay sane in an age of angry opinion-holders, it helps to recognize that beliefs have this chameleon quality. They always look like the truth, as long as they are yours.
Think of a belief like dollar bills in a world where many or most dollar bills are counterfeit. They are circulated freely, most are never really checked, and many are fake.
The crazy part is everyone respects everyone their The dollar as the real currency. After all, if you thought one of the bills was counterfeit, you’d throw it away so it no longer belonged to you.
this means for youall your beliefs always appear correct. When you insist that sharks don’t get cancer, or when you share solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian problem at the dinner table, others may think some of it is interesting money. Yet everyone cannot help but accept all of their current beliefs as true, otherwise they would not believe them.
It’s an extremely strange situation, and we’re all in it. The only reason you think you’re doing the right thing and that the world you see is the real world is that you you.
worst hobby
When you combine the self-affirming nature of faith with a habit of consuming a lot of moral content, bad things can happen.
Many people read a lot of highly partisan content on a daily basis about “what’s going on” in the world. Fans of the hobby call it “staying informed,” and insist it’s not just a personal habit but a civic duty.
[See also: Nobody Knows What’s Going On]
The content consists of new beliefs (referred to as “news”) about what happened today or yesterday, presented with an authoritative tone and little moral ambiguity. They identify clear villains and clear influences. They often give instructions from carefully selected experts on how smart people should think about the problem.
The only filter on the consumer side is whether these new beliefs are consistent with existing beliefs. They usually do this because most existing beliefs are acquired in the same way. The moral of every news story is: “You’re right again!”
A long-term side effect of this hobby is harboring a righteous hatred for those who don’t share your feelings, even if the issues are truly complex. Why can’t that guy just have non-counterfeit bills like me? ! What he believed was not true! What a terrible person!
Politicians thrive on simplistic narratives and inter-class hatred, fueling this worst hobby.
Simple habits to stay sane
So, given that we all carry around a lot of fake dollars, and they all look absolutely real, what are we to do?
In addition to frequent, prolonged breaks from the worst hobby ever, eccentric author Robert Anton Wilson developed a powerful defense against the “I’m the exception” problem.
He recommends adding a customary “maybe” to your inner and outer statements, even if (or especially if) you think it’s unreasonable.
- This policy is exactly what we need. perhaps.
- I can’t do anything at night. perhaps.
- Anyone who believes [blank] What an idiot. perhaps.
- There is no good reason to vote for that guy. perhaps.
- Astrology is complete nonsense. perhaps.
This indiscriminate behavior may not tell you which beliefs are correct. But it reminds you that you don’t only Have true beliefs and your bad beliefs will always look like good beliefs.
It will also make your statement more palatable to most people, and likely more true.
More importantly, it weakens hatred and fanaticism. It is difficult to imagine that righteous violence could be sustained in the presence of any number of “maybes.”
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Final call for Raptitude field trips!
There’s still time to sign up for Raptitude Field Trip 2.
This is how I described it before:
Field Trip is a fun and lightweight mini-course designed to help people discover the hidden treasures in their everyday lives, which is what this blog is all about. I try to make the whole plan as cheap as ordering a large pizza.
It officially starts on February 10th, so don’t wait. (You can sneak in later, but it’s not too late.)
Register now
Why do we do Raptitude field trips? This article explains.
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