I have become increasingly irritated by people claiming that their subjective opinions are anything other than subjective opinions.
I mean, to some extent we all need to have irrational faith in our own conceptions in order to function. Like, no more that 10% of the claims I make on this blog are objectively true, but functionally I have to act as though everything I say is objectively true, or I wouldn't ever post anything. The same is true for anyone who has ever expressed an opinion ever, or anyone who has ever made a moral judgement about anything. So I have no problem with (or even actively endorse) people making the functional assumption that what they believe to be true is true.
But there's a difference between functionally assuming that everything you beleive is true and actually beleiving that everything you beleive is true. This difference is expressed in certain people's inability to listen to the arguments of other people, certain people's outlandish statements about other people's views, and certain people's inability to go into a debate without pretentiously assuming that everyone disagreeing with them is an idiot. And it's this behaviour and the underlying belief which enables it which has started to really grind my gears.
All humans are fallible. Our understanding of the universe relies on a few fairly impressive but comparatively feeble sensory organs, and the ever-limited ability of our brains to understand what those organs show us. We are all saturated with bias, which is functionally neccessary in order for us to know anything, but freqeuntly prevents us from seeing the full picture. And we are all driven by the desire to be liked and respected and to be able to like and respect ourselves, which, while not a bad thing in itself, all too often eclipses our desire to pursue knowledge and understand the universe.
But too many people in the world seem to have forgotten this. The arrogance of those who seem to subconscously or consciously beleive that they are infallible is mindblowing. Such people seem to have decided exactly how the world works before even leaving their homes, and as such have stopped feeling the need to pay attention to what's actually going on, except to force what they see through the mechanism of their preconceptions.
I should backtrack here. We all suffer from this problem to a certain extent, and psychology tells me that the fact that I regocnise it in others so often indicates that I unknowlingly subscribe to delusions of infalliablity myself. So I'm not out to isolate certain people and point and sneer at them, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. I'm trying to adress a problem, not the people who suffer from the problem.
The idea I want to promote is that every conscious human being has a valid angle on what the universe is like. I don't agree, fundementally, with the idea that certain people's opinions are just "better" than others. Yes, some points of view seem much more likely than others (evolution over not-evolution, racial equality over racism, etc.), but those views which seem irrational exist for a reason, and the reason is not simply "some people are stupid".
Everyone has different experiences of life, different sources of information and influence, and different internal mechanisms for processing ideas. And these all culminate to produce different opinions. I beleive it is only by considering all points of view, even the ones which seem completely crazy, and looking at the world through as many different angles as possible, will we get closer to "the truth" than we are now.
As such, it is deeply irrational to go through life dismissing all opposing opinions to yours as simply inferior. Not only is it just wrong, but it hinders your own personal development and understanding of the world around you.
Pretentiousness is annoying for the simple reason that it will never get us anywhere.
I mean, to some extent we all need to have irrational faith in our own conceptions in order to function. Like, no more that 10% of the claims I make on this blog are objectively true, but functionally I have to act as though everything I say is objectively true, or I wouldn't ever post anything. The same is true for anyone who has ever expressed an opinion ever, or anyone who has ever made a moral judgement about anything. So I have no problem with (or even actively endorse) people making the functional assumption that what they believe to be true is true.
But there's a difference between functionally assuming that everything you beleive is true and actually beleiving that everything you beleive is true. This difference is expressed in certain people's inability to listen to the arguments of other people, certain people's outlandish statements about other people's views, and certain people's inability to go into a debate without pretentiously assuming that everyone disagreeing with them is an idiot. And it's this behaviour and the underlying belief which enables it which has started to really grind my gears.
All humans are fallible. Our understanding of the universe relies on a few fairly impressive but comparatively feeble sensory organs, and the ever-limited ability of our brains to understand what those organs show us. We are all saturated with bias, which is functionally neccessary in order for us to know anything, but freqeuntly prevents us from seeing the full picture. And we are all driven by the desire to be liked and respected and to be able to like and respect ourselves, which, while not a bad thing in itself, all too often eclipses our desire to pursue knowledge and understand the universe.
But too many people in the world seem to have forgotten this. The arrogance of those who seem to subconscously or consciously beleive that they are infallible is mindblowing. Such people seem to have decided exactly how the world works before even leaving their homes, and as such have stopped feeling the need to pay attention to what's actually going on, except to force what they see through the mechanism of their preconceptions.
I should backtrack here. We all suffer from this problem to a certain extent, and psychology tells me that the fact that I regocnise it in others so often indicates that I unknowlingly subscribe to delusions of infalliablity myself. So I'm not out to isolate certain people and point and sneer at them, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. I'm trying to adress a problem, not the people who suffer from the problem.
The idea I want to promote is that every conscious human being has a valid angle on what the universe is like. I don't agree, fundementally, with the idea that certain people's opinions are just "better" than others. Yes, some points of view seem much more likely than others (evolution over not-evolution, racial equality over racism, etc.), but those views which seem irrational exist for a reason, and the reason is not simply "some people are stupid".
Everyone has different experiences of life, different sources of information and influence, and different internal mechanisms for processing ideas. And these all culminate to produce different opinions. I beleive it is only by considering all points of view, even the ones which seem completely crazy, and looking at the world through as many different angles as possible, will we get closer to "the truth" than we are now.
As such, it is deeply irrational to go through life dismissing all opposing opinions to yours as simply inferior. Not only is it just wrong, but it hinders your own personal development and understanding of the world around you.
Pretentiousness is annoying for the simple reason that it will never get us anywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment