One of the greatest challenges of humanity in these fast-changing times is dealing with our delusions.
I’m not talking only about conspiracy theorists, radical militants, or anyone who thinks iceberg lettuce is tasty.
I mean you, dear reader, are at least a little bit deluded. And me too. Which is to say, we are neither rational nor objective.
Now, before you start slinging curses at me through the screen, let me explain what I mean by “delusions.” And if you hang around long enough I’ll even share some thoughts on how to make the most of this human conundrum.
Here goes…
7 Billion Humans Can’t Be Right
We like to think we know what’s going on around us—that we’ve got a handle on what’s right and good and true in life.
And in many ways, we do. Our big brains can solve all kinds of problems. They’re responsible for creating complex technologies, philosophies, and social structures.
And yet, we disagree. About a whole lotta stuff. And we think, “If so-and-so would just open their friggin’ eyes, they’d see how right I am and stop being so stupid!”
But unfortunately, they feel the same.
7+ billion of us all have different worldviews deeply embedded into our minds and bodies. Truth, in many ways, is in the eye of the beholder.
The Source of Our Delusions
We go through our lives in a cloud of misperceptions, formulating our own version of truth. We can’t see the world as it is.
Our senses give us a ton of information every waking moment, and even when we’re asleep.
But in order to understand and use all that data, our brains filter and interpret it. Those interpretations are always biased because of our unique natures, memories, beliefs, traumas, emotions, and bodily reactions.
And those interpretation are the delusions we live within every moment.
Ask any three people about an event, and you’ll get three different descriptions. Sure, their stories might overlap, but they’ll also diverge.
Not only that, the emotional and physiological reactions they each express in describing said event will also be different, because our bodies hardcode all of our experiences into our cells and tissues.
Those differences begin with what we notice in the moment, and they become more pronounced as memory contorts the experience over time. Ask those same people again six months later and you’ll find the stories have changed.
(Mis)Information Overload
These natural bias patterns have existed as long as we have—nothing new there. But now we have social media echo chambers, alternative facts, and outright lies amplified and broadcast as absolute truth—all feeding our delusions.
We’ve cranked the collective volume of information up to 11 (Awesome! We can instantly learn how to make an authentic pad thai!)
But we haven’t had the time, or forethought, to develop our minds and societal structures to handle the load effectively.
It’s like sending 1,000,000 volts of electricity into a circuit designed to handle 100.
Ideological groups from ISIS to Q-Anon to government agencies to businesses have been capitalizing on the resulting overload and overwhelm. They’re using mass communication channels to manipulate people’s thoughts and emotions and gain supporters.
This manipulation turns overwhelm into polarization, and it’s partly why fanaticism, extremism, nationalism, supremacism, and conspiracy-based movements have been on the rise. (Fortunately so have more collaborative social movements.)
Objectivity Itself is a Delusion
But science and reason can save us if people would just accept them, right?!
Well…it’s not so simple.
Yes we can and should seek clarity through science and evidence-based reporting. And while they can provide useful insights on important subjects, they’re not purely objective.
Science is a practice of learning, not a static arbiter of truth. It’s subject to human error in the form of incorrect assumptions, misinterpretation, denial, and a host of personal, corporate, and political agendas.
You can find evidence for opposing views in many areas of research. For instance, I’m skeptical of claims that the herbicide glyphosate is safe for people and the environment. And I generally agree with the science that says it likely causes cancer and other serious ecological and health issues.
I’m not an expert in this area; just a citizen who has absorbed certain information and formed certain conclusions.
But even agencies full of experts can’t agree, as this Environmental Sciences Europe report shows:
“Markedly different judgements have been reached by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), European regulators, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) regarding the potential of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) to cause or contribute to human cancer.”
These agencies had access to a lot of the same data, but they gave more weight to different sets of data in their analysis.
So which science is right?
The Right-Wrong Death Spiral
The more strongly your identity is tied to your delusions, the more prone you are to being upset by anything that challenges your views, even if the evidence is sound.
Upset leads to defensiveness and combativeness. You feel threatened—at an emotional level, a perceived attack to your identity feels like an attack on your life.
Ironically, the more upset you become, the less clearly you’re able to think and process new information. Being emotionally attached to delusion perpetuates and strengthens delusion.
That’s why holy wars happen, and it’s how an angry mob can end up attacking democratic institutions in the name of “freedom.”
The Benefits of Accepting That You Have Delusions
The more we can accept that we’re living in la-la land, the better we can work open-mindedly with the info at hand. Questioning your beliefs and divesting from your delusions from time to time can have some pretty nifty benefits:
- Less worry, more peace: When you’re not busy fighting for ego-dominance, you can relax and enjoy life more.
- Better health: Clinging to your beliefs can make you stressed out. If you’re stressed all the time, your body wears out faster and you’re more likely to get sick.
- Better relationships: If you can be open to considering others’ viewpoints (excluding of course viewpoints that justify their attacking you), you can learn a lot and enjoy relating more.
- Build a better world: You can be a force for unity and peace in the world, rather than divisiveness. A lot of people resonate with the phrase “United we stand,” but use it to imply standing against an enemy. How about applying it to all of humanity?
- Stop worrying: You don’t have to have all the answers and be right. What a relief just to accept that despite your beauty and brilliance, you’re also pretty much an idiot. The pressure’s off!
- Be more effective: When you’re open to unlearning what you think you know and what worked in the past, you’ll be much better able to deal with what’s actually happening in the present.
Acknowledging Your Biases Doesn’t Mean Tolerating Abuse
One of the potential downsides of admitting you might be wrong is that unethical or sociopathic people might try to exploit your open-mindedness to manipulate or attack you.
Gaslighting, for example, is the practice of an abuser purposefully trying to trick a victim into mistrusting their own sense of reality.
They tell you you’re crazy, that you didn’t see what you saw. They play the victim while sucking your life force out of you. And they may or may not even know they’re doing it.
In the age of misinformation, it’s more important than ever to understand the dynamics of gaslighting and emotional abuse so you maintain sovereignty over your thoughts. Just because your worldview is inherently distorted doesn’t make you wrong when you experience somebody misbehaving.
How to Make the Most of a Deluded Life
Since global enlightenment seems unlikely anytime soon, we’re stuck with our ego-based viewpoints. So we just have to deal with it the best we can. A few suggestions…
Be more science-y.
Science might not be the absolute truth standard many wish it were, but we can all benefit from a more scientific approach to life. We can ask questions, investigate, and draw our own conclusions while remaining open to new data.
The key is to avoid personally identifying with our conclusions and making them the source of our value in the world.
Focus On Values.
Since we’re often not going to see eye-to-eye on the truth, I propose shifting from a focus on truth to a focus on values: what do you actually want, and why?
Most people want a lot of the same things: their basic physical needs met, to love and be loved, happiness, peace, freedom, health, safety.
We get so hung up on how we think we can and should get these things (e.g. capitalism vs. socialism) that we forget about the goals themselves. This is one of the biggest delusions of all.
One time a friend of mine was playing some music I wasn’t vibing with. I approached him about maybe changing it and we got into a drawn out discussion.
We both became so focused on being heard and understood that we forgot all about the music… until we both suddenly realized the mix had changed to something completely different anyway!
Fortunately we were good friends and the only consequence was we wasted a few minutes on a useless but peaceful conversation. But it’s this same kind of dynamic that can lead to conflict and violence.
So figure out what you really care about and make that your priority. If you never like to admit you’re wrong or don’t know something, it might be time to try to figure out why that is and make some changes.
Be Decent.
Lastly, when you do need to disagree, focus on the big picture, and be respectful.
Make love, not war.
We’re all in this fun-house together; we’re just looking at different mirrors.
Livin’ La Vida Loca
We have a long road ahead of us. The world is in many ways more connected than ever, and in other ways more divided. Human bias is a complicated topic, and I’m aware of only scratching the surface in this post.
Still, I believe that if we want to create a more equitable, peaceful, and healthy society, we need to talk about these things. We need to make room for different viewpoints, while prioritizing our highest shared values over our preferred strategies to achieve them.
Being right is not what matters most in life.
Let’s seek to live peacefully, allowing for the spectrum of human experience and working together to take care of our home, so future generations can enjoy it.
