“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is” Winston Churchill.
I have been told by a couple of close friends that if they ever saw fairies at the bottom of their garden, I would be the first person they called. I think I am flattered by that, but to be clear, when I asked them why, they said it’s because I would listen intently and ask questions without judgment and not cast instant decision that they were delusional. I might ask if they had eaten any strange mushrooms recently, but my approach to all information is a skeptical one, which I now recognize is described by an ancient Greek philosophy from Pyrrho of Elis (see Skepticism {January 2018}). It’s hard to change the world if the truth is not recognized by a crucial tipping point number. That may be as little as 1% of awakened people, but the manufactured reality is how we arrived at the state of the world we have today.
I disappointed at the mainstream narratives that prevail about all manner of topics, especially since Covid, on ‘trusting the science’ and trying to disregard valid alternative perspectives. It has been going on for decades and I have talked about it in past posts on this blog (e.g., Knowledge, Definitions, and Beliefs {January 2018}, and, Thinking Anew – Part 11 – Social Contracts and TRUST – part 4 {February 2022}). When we see systemic corruption, it is our duty to do our own research and find the truth for ourselves. Knowing why you have your beliefs and how you got them, is a core part of knowing yourself and discerning truth from propaganda. In an earlier post (Cultivating a Flourishing Future 3 – Manifested New Perspectives {November 2018}) I talked about how we cannot reach the destination we want by driving in the opposite direction. Our first step is to realize where we are heading as a global society and then consciously change direction.
When anyone outside the narratives speaks out, they are branded as conspiracy theorists, nutjobs, or just not experts in the material. What seems to get lost in the mainstream attacks is that there many experts with alternative perspectives as the mainstream, but they get silenced by being deplatformed, or their careers threatened if they continue to speak out. And naturally they never get (or very rarely except to ridicule and discredit) a reasonable opportunity to speak and debate on the mainstream platforms. If you look closely, ‘non-expert media controllers’ on the mainstream get to choose which experts get to talk, but ‘non-expert media people’ on alternate sites and their choice of experts get sidelined and ridiculed.
As an example, of expert tunnel-vision and dogmatic thinking, in November, 2022, Netflix released the show ‘Ancient Apocalypse’ based on the books by Graham Hancock. Whether Hancock’s (and, also many other ‘experts’) perspectives have any validity, I was struck by how venomous the mainstream was to his hypothesis of an ancient civilization existing before the last ice age. Hancock himself says that many of his conclusions need discussion. But it is the lack of any ‘accepted experts’ to even debate him in open forum that I find disconcerting. And there are many more examples of how scientific and technical experts claim to hold the truth and will not debate with alternative perspectives on the edges of their fields of expertise.
Fake sense-making and propaganda are becoming norms to uphold mainstream narratives and remove competing narratives. It seems common today that if any investigative author disagrees with an expert interpretation, then the author must be wrong, no matter how logical and thought out the authors point of view may seem. You cannot make the statement that someone is wrong without real sense-making, but that seems to be happening more and more within mainstream narratives. While the term ‘conspiracy theory,’ used to debunk alternative narratives goes back at least to 1863, it became an in-vogue socio-political mainstream tool since the 1960s to discredit any, and all, alternate thinking from the mainstream. The latest political attempts to stop any ‘disinformation is an alarming outgrowth of propaganda in our time. If we seek truth and are discerning with what we know and can interpret, then we ought to be able to see disinformation for ourselves. When a political system insists it do it for us, and a majority accept it, be nervous, very nervous.
Once you allow yourself to look at all information impartially and with discernment, it is hard not to recognize the pattern of organized indoctrination that is prevalent in the mainstream’s narrative. Critical thinking means to look critically at all information and not simple dismiss inconvenient ideas and facts – that is simple prejudice. ‘Experts’ have spent a lot of time learning about the topics in which they are expert. But they are also human and therefore, are as subject to fixed and dogmatic belief systems as anyone else. They are as vulnerable to self-deception as anyone, want to ‘fit-in’ with their peers (subject to peer pressure), and fear disapproval. I know of several academic colleagues who are pressured into using preference falsification to protect their academic reputations (the selection of a publicly expressed preference that differs from the underlying privately held preference).
The book Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification by Timur Kuran, argues that “preference falsification is not only ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. It provides a theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities.” The antidote to preference falsification is thinking free and having open freedom of speech. Not everyone has equal validity in their opinions, but surely it is up to each of us to determine truth for ourselves, and we should demand open discussion on all topics, at all times. Like beliefs, I advocate continually questions those as well as the opinions of any experts you use, even if you agree with them.
It’s OK to have firm beliefs, but always be aware and honest with yourself of why you have those beliefs. I know from my own research (symbolic beliefs) how people deceive themselves into thinking they support a position, but deep-down really are not as committed as they think they are – this is self-deception. Often, I hear people ardently say, “This is what I stand for” but the beliefs and values not clearly defined or held leading to them faltering in their commitments, struggling with motivation to push on, or deluding themselves into believing they are doing more than they are because it looks socially good. Their grasp of truth is minimal.
Symbolic beliefs and self-deception show up in many ways. If you find any reason (minor or inconvenient) to cancel plans for something you claim is important, then perhaps your belief is more superficial and a form of self-deception for social acceptance only, e.g., I would love to go hiking but it is too cold, hot, wet, dry, etc. You lack commitment because you are not really committed in the first place. Social conditioning may have created a personal narrative about yourself for ego protection, but is it the authentic you that longs to come out? Being truly authentic allows you to know yourself and the direction you want to go in life. Being inauthentic means you follow the crowd and how you think they perceive you. You believe what they believe without really knowing why.
Do you need instant gratification or instant results? Research shows that people who can delay gratification know themselves more and can are generally more successful and happier in life. This is a skill you can learn. Most people do not like being outside of their comfort zone, but this is often the point they learn the most about themselves. It’s not about controlling one’s feelings, but of accepting them as guides for choices we ought to make. Rather than projecting from memories, ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen (note how projected fears almost never happen). You are more than your momentary state of being. People who don’t live lives of self-deception are usually more authentically personally and within a community, are good leaders (even when they are introverts) because they are supportive and nurturing and help people recognize their own power.
To wrap up my meanderings in this post, Belief confirmation can blind you to the truth that is out there. There is danger in just picking the experts you believe and ignoring those that threaten your beliefs. Do the work; be curious; find truth out for yourself. Don’t take the easy path by simply choosing the pundits that fit your non-analyzed beliefs. We are all capable of deep understanding and sense-making. Train yourself to identify propaganda and find truth for yourself. If we desire a better world, we owe it to ourselves to do the work to find that path and not be led like lambs to the slaughter by a disingenuous and corrupt hierarchy.
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