Do you have a "narrative"? If so, disentangle yourself from it. - It amounts to bias and other sloppy thinking. Posted: Jan 15th, 2018 - 6:55 am
Each and every day, we are beset with myriad opportunities or, more accurately, temptations to engage in sloppy thinking - if it can be called thinking at all. These temptations may be blatant or they may be subtle, but what they all have in common is that they're careully crafted to fit neatly into certain narratives, or mental predispositions.
A mental predisposition is, of course, nothing more or less than bias, AKA prejudice.
And prejudice, in turn, is a substitute for rational thought.
Most of the invitations to sloppy thinking that we receive come from a fairly limited number of sources, all of them having their own agendas, and most of them very skilled at forms of persuasion that are, to be charitable, less than completely honest - the operative word being "completely."
Not a few are deliberately, treacherously and cruelly deceptive, having no loyalty to the truth or any other ideals. They care nothing for anything other than their own interests.
The world is complex, and it takes considerable effort to make sense of it. The persuaders know this, and they know how very much you and I would love to make short work of the job.
Enter the narrative, which "solves" the complexities of life for us. We become so attached to the narrative that we actually receive a hit of dopamine whenever we encounter something that triggers or confirms our narrative.
We become addicted to our narratives. A little honest self-reflection about what you FEEL when you run across someone who, or something that, confirms your narrative will bring this to your attention. It might be the shock of a lifetime.
That's right. That confirmation of your narrative gives you the same "feeling" as a chocolate truffle or a bag of fries. So, so very SATISFYING, eh?
And how do you FEEL when your narrative comes under attack in a way that you cannot simply laugh off, refute or deny? If you're completely honest, you feel threatened at some level of your personhood, maybe even a little afraid or panicked - which is not unlike how an addict feels when he's lost his stash.
There has never been, in my lifetime, such a raging battle being waged, NOT for your mind, oh no - at least in the sense of a mind that's capable of recognizing truth from fiction. The battle, instead, is to recruit MINDLESS DISCIPLES of one narrative or another.
I see articles posted here that are not invitations to rational thought. Objectivity isn't at all difficult to recognize, nor is the lack of it. An author who selectively presents facts that are slanted in his ffavor isn't at all diffficult to spot, nor is the author who has the courage to include facts that run counter to his argument for your consideration.
Get your dopamine some other way than by locating sources that confirm your narrative. Better still, lose the narrative. Whatever it is, it isn't true, it isn't your friend, and it's no friend of our society when it robs us of people who think.
...and I mean, really think.
Verbal shortcuts give away your addiction. These are micro-narratives. If someone says "the petroleum industry" but you hear "big oil", you're an addict. If someone says "the government" but you hear "big government" (or maybe "the swamp"), you're an addict. If someone says "Muslim" but you hear "terrorist", you're an addict. If "corporation" is a pejorative concept, you're an addict. Ditto, "labor" or "management." And, of course, if someone says "liberal" and you hear "communist", or "conservative" and you hear "Nazi" - well, you're an addict, plain and simple.
None of the original terms (petroleum industry, government, Muslim, corporation, labor, management, liberal and conservative) have any inherent qualitative or moral connotations. It's only within a narrative that they're infused with a constellation of value judgments and inferences comprised of a rich blend of truth and falsehood, fact and fiction - and also defend them from objective analysis.
If you want to improve your ability to think (and who wouldn't?), there are a number of free online courses available. See the link below for one from Queensland University.
LINK/URL: The Science of Everyday Thinking
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