Make Believe

It seems to me that we're living in times when many people believe that everyone's entitled to their own truth. As much as I agree with the observation that lies are omnipresent, making it harder to trust anyone's version of truth, I have to say I don't agree; you're most certainly not entitled to your own truth.

The single most horrific future imaginable for our species, is if and when everyone is united in believing the same lies. Imagine a colorblind absolute ruler who decrees that everything green is in fact red. We can all see it's red, we all agree it's red, but after a few decades of indoctrination and social peer-pressure, we all go along with the lie. What was once a lie has now become the accepted truth. We've seen this happen in real life with four years of an American president who has no reference for truth, only what benefits himself. So now there are Americans who believe Trump was not responsible whatsoever for the January 6 attempted coupe, that he has in fact won the 2020 elections and that it's no big deal that he stole secret government documents. These people live in an alternate reality, making it hard, if not impossible, to regain any semblance of social cohesion.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course. But to have a meaningful debate about those opinions, in order to give the best ideas a chance to prevail in the "marketplace of ideas", we all have to agree on the underlying facts. We're not entitled to our own facts. We have to start with the assumption, the agreement, that an objective reality exists, even when we also agree that we may never know everything. The mere fact that we see reality as it's filtered through our own mental limitations necessitates that we all have our own opinions, our own world-view. But our world-views should be based on a sincere effort to approximate as best as possible a model of reality. And the best method we have for doing that is the scientific method. Science doesn't deal in certainties, because every hypothesis, even when they become a "theory" (which is the highest level of certainty attainable in science), can at some point be disproved when new evidence is unveiled.

The example I've given above, with everyone agreeing that red is green, has one advantage; universal belief, even if it's a lie, assures at least some social cohesion. The Nazis were united in a Big Lie, but for a while Hitler held the command over a highly united people. Individualism on steroids has made our western societies as fragmented and atomized as never before seen. After all the centuries of peoples united around myths and lies, isn't it about time for us to be united around truth? Or at least the best version of truth we're able to discern, not as individuals, but as a species. We live in an age of false prophets who command sway over far too many receptive souls. And I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better. Although I have great faith in our capabilities, sometimes I lose all hope when I see yet another comment or video or blog claiming that the Nazis were socialists. That the earth is flat. That Trump won the elections. That trickle down economics work. That capitalism is responsible for the wealth we now enjoy, instead of all the work that's been done by workers, scientists, engineers and inventors.

Look, in the end all we have is our brains, our hands and feet, and our speech to transfer what's in our minds to the minds of our fellow human beings, and our hands to transform nature into the images that reside in our minds first. If and when we use those amazing tools to distort reality for some personal gain or for membership of some social tribe, be it political or religious, we throw away our ability for progression, we make our lifes worse. The stories we tell each other and our beliefs based on those stories matter, because beliefs inform actions and behavior. Erratic beliefs lead to erratic actions and behaviors. So, I'd like to leave you with the below linked video that discusses the question "Do Atheists Believe in NOTHING?" Spoiler alert: we ALL believe in something. Beliefs is all we have, the only distinction is one between reasonable beliefs backed by evidence, and unreasonable beliefs backed by self-interest.

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