What If We're Wrong?

[Author’s note: Not to be confused with the Chuck Klosterman book of the same name, but does share the basic premise, that is, what if we’re wrong about many of our commonly held beliefs? I take a more practical approach to the question, whereas much of Klosterman’s commentary – which is nonetheless quite interesting – is more esoteric.]

 

I am guilty of doing it more often than I’d like, behaving like everyone else, much to my chagrin. While I often think about how I could help the world be a better place as it seems to descend further and further into madness, I usually come up empty-minded, with no easy solutions and quietly wishing for a comet to strike the planet ala Don’t Look Up. Then it dawned on me as I was reading Chuck Klosterman’s book, But What if We’re Wrong? – the title of the book; what if we asked ourselves that question before being so certain of our beliefs? For example, before hitting ‘send’ on that tweet, what if we asked ourselves, “What if I’m wrong about what I’m saying?”

 

The problem with old-timey Western European philosophers is that, by-and-large, their arguments are only successful in a vacuum and suppose common people en masse can be convinced to take the time and think philosophically, and then actually apply those ideas in the real world. This doesn’t happen very often if at all, and very few people enjoy the mental masturbation of thinking deeply about anything. This is perhaps due to human beings’ motivations not being all that deep or interesting. That said, it is no wonder that ‘academics’ are regarded with suspicion by authoritarian leaders…who really don’t have that much to fear from academics being that even the general population thinks of philosophers as bullshit artists. Why would this be the case? As I said, most people just can’t be asked to think very deeply about anything. But, if this is a case of conditioning, here’s where my idea can play a critical role in how we treat each other.

 

Suppose when interacting with other people, before we speak or act we ask ourselves, “What if I’m wrong?” Think about how far this question would go in beginning thought processes that go deeper. I might add that asking this question really should be our default position since – when considering human history – we’ve been wrong about far more things than right. (This is still the case today.) The only problem is that asking the question is likely to be cut off at the knees due to an overriding self-righteousness driven by our lust for power (however minor or illusionary).

 

But let’s say in the off chance that we’re able to stop ourselves and ask, “What if I’m wrong?” what follows? If we’re trying to make factual claims, such claims are easy enough to corroborate, at least until disinformation campaigns and deep fakes become even more prevalent. If we’re stating matters of opinion, we can ask ourselves why we hold the opinions we do, what is the opposing view and why does someone hold their positions, are there any other competing views that may illuminate a false dichotomy, and perhaps most importantly what is the consequences of stating my position? Am I stating a point of view for the sake of being right? Am I just trolling? Is it for the well-being of society? (Keep in mind just about everyone thinks this.) We might also ask ourselves, No, really, what if I am wrong and I get torched for it? Having the foresight to think of possible consequences is another trait most of humanity could stand to cultivate. Trust me, in the U.S. society is a disaster because both the left- and right-wings, and corporations prefer the lot of us to act on nothing but impulse. I could be wrong about why society is a disaster, but if I am wrong I’ll own up to it. And this is something else asking ourselves, “What if I’m wrong?” aims to do – foster some goddamn humility.

 

Few people are going to disagree that we need less humility in the world. I’m not saying anyone should be a pushover instead, but rather accept the reality that none of us are right about everything – again, we’re likely to be wrong about whatever we’re on about – and be willing to accept this fact (and I’m not wrong that our propensity for wrongness is a fact). But what if I’m wrong about how much better the world would be if we asked my important question? The consequences would not be dire; people would just resume what these days is normal behavior.

 

But let’s say I’m an oil executive who insists that fossil fuels aren’t helping to change the climate, that climate change is not being driven by human activity. What if I’m wrong about that? The consequences wouldn’t be that dire for me; I guess my fortunes would keep me comfortable at least for the rest of my lifetime. For everyone else, though, well, you’re screwed and I don’t care because I’ll be fine. Ah, but do I want my name (my genes, really) to go on? And would I’d rather send my progeny into a world where climate change isn’t an issue, giving them one less thing to worry about? So, there could be dire consequences, just not immediately. And there is a myriad of questions we could raise about being wrong in this instance which could give us insight into the consequences of being wrong. But if we don’t ask ourselves if we could be wrong we’d never be capable of any meaningful thought on an issue or be able to see into the future.

 

To be fair, on the other hand, what if climate scientists are wrong about climate change, that the earth is experiencing a normal, cyclic change in overall temperature? Let’s say the belief that humans are driving climate change drives us towards more and more renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, what are the terrible consequences of being wrong in this case? When you consider clean air and water, this alone would be enough for me to say I would accept the consequences of being wrong even if it meant a few people who work in the fossil fuel industry would lose their jobs. [People lose their jobs all the time; they can be retrained if they’re willing. I’d be willing to lose a job I had if it meant a more beautiful, and cleaner, less-toxic environment.] So, some consequences can be quite unfavorable and others favorable if we’re wrong on an issue. But – again – we’ve got to ask the question first.

 

We’ve all seen the consequences of a world in which people act without foresight and are reactionary in the moment. Does society have to behave like this, thus becoming less civilized? Impulses may compel us but the more reason is cultivated, the more we may dull the sword of impulse. As it stands, impulse is cutting all of our relationships to ribbons. Think about the consequences of continuing this course of behavior. Is it worth it? Let’s start by asking ourselves if its wrong to act like this; what are the consequences if we change our behavior so that our interactions have more favorable results (i.e. less harm)? My guess is even if we’re wrong to temper our impulses, if we’re wrong that causing less harm is actually doing more harm, we can see that makes no sense. I’d dare say that most of us would recognize this as insanity. I’d dare say most of us would not like to see society continue in this way. So, we should stop behaving in this manner, and all we have to do is ask a simply question.

 

Practice it. Practice it and it gets easier to do. If we find that asking ourselves if we’re wrong does not lead to better outcomes, we haven’t lost much and I can go back to wishing for a comet to strike the planet. I shouldn’t want to wish for that. But maybe I’m wrong.

An Open Letter To Millennials

[Part Three in my recent series skewering the latest generation of young adults in the U.S. Millennials are no exception to the rule that every generation thinks way too much of itself, and as such, need to be talked down off the ledge before they hurt themselves.]

Millennials, you scare me. You have taken self-aggrandizing to heights never before seen in history.

Over the course of the past few years, reports have been rolling in from college professors across America that they can no longer challenge the ideas of their students without endangering their jobs. College campuses, once a place where you as a young student wanted to go in order to learn more about the world now go to college with the expectation that any and all of your beliefs will be confirmed because they are true and not because a college simply wants your money. Meanwhile, professional companies are reporting that when you enter the workforce, you as entry level employees, are expecting exorbitant salaries, corner offices and to come and go as you please simply because you bothered to show up for work in the first place. Granted, you fight for social justice will the zeal common to all young ideologues, but you only do so as long as you don’t actually risk anything such as bodily harm, your source of income or alienating your friends. This last point is most disturbing of all.

Certainly, you have raised your voice and won some important battles such as the right for gays and lesbians to marry. But as I said, you haven’t risked a whole lot in doing so, not unless you yourself are gay or lesbian. While I believe you are right that such an issue is an important one to fight for, there are other issues – non-social, global issues – that need attention that you have not unexpectedly turned a blind eye to such as climate change and the alarming and rise of militant Islam. With that in mind, imagine if you will that your generation has been transported back in time to 1939 to the onset of World War II; how well would you handle a fascist bent on talking over Europe while an Emperor stalked Asia and the Pacific? How well would you handle the entire world being on the brink of war? Would you tweet Hitler out of power or share on Facebook “epic responses” to Japanese propagandists? Or would you dare enter the trenches and provide the enemy with the largest and easiest targets they’ve ever seen? (And would you complain to your commander about the amount of aggression levied at you by the enemy? Your generation cannot even seem to handle even the most innocuous insult much less be asked to physically exert themselves.) I could forgive you for abstaining from violence, electing to stay home and protest a lion killer from the comfort of a café with free wi-fi because like me you have given basically up on humanity, but your tenacity regarding social issues indicates you are not as misanthropic as I am. Maybe you would simply turn over the world to Germany and Japan, alleging that all cultures are equally worthwhile. Maybe then it will dawn on you that these ‘equal’ cultures have no respect for your opinions about social justice when you are incarcerated for dissent (if not summarily executed by your new overseers).

[*Name here withheld because I hurt this poor, young man's feelings], a Millennial who writes for the Millennialist website Mic.com, defends you by writing, “Young people these days are pigeonholed with all kinds of negative stereotypes: They're lazy. They're unskilled. They're entitled and narcissistic. None of these labels are actually true but they remain conventional wisdom the country over nonetheless.” Leave it to someone who was hand-held throughout their ‘education’ to miss why stereotypes become stereotypes in the first place. Much like any given person anywhere in the world, you tend not to take responsibility for your shortcomings. Or, like any given person anywhere in the world, when you do admit to any shortcomings, you feel as though this admission absolves you of any criticism or worse, you drum up the nerve to play the victim card as if you had endured ten years as a child prostitute in Thailand. I realize this is tough to hear, that you are typical of any given person anywhere in the world, but it’s true. Your Gen X parents may have told you you’re special, possibly due to their own lack of education that allowed for the misinterpretation of the word ‘special,’ but I assure you that your parents are kicking themselves now because they can’t get five minutes of your time before you turn away to coddle a device that you are so dependent on, you literally cannot function without it. Driven to dismiss these nagging faults about yourself you band together and communicating as one, at least when you can tear yourself away from news about a socialite who contributes nothing worthwhile to society other than her very presence.

Maybe someone, possibly a Millennial but more likely a comedian, said that you’re special because you grew up to survive the Great Recession. Do you think this is anything like growing up during WWII, the Vietnam conflict or even the Cold War? If you’re going to complain about, say, the Silent Generation (ask Siri) for feeling entitled to a program such as Social Security, think for a moment the degree to which that generation worked for it. Men went to war and women took over physically demanding factory jobs. Today, you seem to think that perfecting the art of the latte deserves more respect than it is given. As with any generation, you are bound to contribute the occasional genius or two, but I have heard of no genius arising from the slums of Starbucks. Yet you as a generation expect so much while contributing so little. While I agree in part with your overriding principle that life is better spent having fun instead of working, this doesn’t mean that when you are asked to work, you should put as little effort or skill into working as you can. One day your parents might die and leave you with nothing (since Gen X’ers were the first generation to stop saving money), meaning you might have to – gasp! – get a job you don’t like for a little while and be expected to be good at it in order to pay for that little rectangle piece of plastic and metal that serves as your brain. You might also want to consider the necessity of buying food before paying for a tattoo.

If you still think you are at all special, you may be right, but in the negative sense of the word. A special person (that is, intelligent person) would never come to the conclusion that the beliefs they hold are beyond reproach simply because they hold the belief. A ‘special’ person would, perhaps because your parents didn’t give you the tools to prevent mere words from causing you lasting psychological harm. You, as a ‘special’ person, supports socialism and sometimes Communism, though you are usually unable to describe socialism (without the use of a smart phone) or understand that Communism doesn’t work in real life. You, as a ‘special’ person also seem to think that being socially liberal means you are liberal, period, despite data that indicates the more money you make, the more fiscally conservative you become. And although you are rejecting the notion of God en masse, you are also rejecting science. Unfortunately we cannot vaccinate against stupidity.

Lastly, if you’ll notice, no self-respecting minority who doesn’t have a lot of white friends dares to identify themselves as a Millennial. (This should serve as a red flag and make you reconsider some of the things you believe about yourselves.) No minorities identify themselves as Millennials because while you as a white person can talk about injustice ad nauseam, minorities have to actually suffer it. Of course, this is the part where you bemoan the fact that you are white and call for the extermination of Caucasians, so long as it’s not yourself because you’re on the side of the disenfranchised. You don’t seem to realize that it was Renaissance ideals, brought to you by a few boat loads of white people, that allowed for social justice in the U.S. to ever take place. Do not think for a second that if the shoe were on the other foot, any other foot, that another ethnicity in power would think to build into their country’s constitution the idea of social equality. Today, the U.S. Constitution, written by a bunch of old dudes in funny hats – some of whom owned slaves – is what many foreign progressive wish their own countries would model their governments upon. Understandably, you dare not acknowledge this as it would undermine your belief in cultural relativism.

I’m sorry, Millennials, but you’re not quite as special as you think. IOW, omg ur not spcl rofl. You do have the opportunity to prove otherwise, but as a generation unique to the U.S. you come with all the trappings particular to Americans, meaning, you’re not number one in a whole slew of categories. One of those areas is reading comprehension: “Special - Better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.” So, are you special? And if all of you are special, wouldn’t that mean none of you are special? No, no, don’t ponder that for a moment. I don’t want to end up in jail for making you feel a little bit bad about yourself.

The Age of Assholes

The trend of political correctness has existed for so long now, especially on college campuses, it has become standard operating procedure in the collegiate arena. Whilst even the most innocuous racist or sexist comment or behavior now results in the immediate suspension of the perpetrator, a disturbing new trend has emerged over the past few years in which a student can take ‘legitimate’ issue with anyone – including professors – whose ideas or words offend them. The institutions of higher learning seem to have become infected with what many liberals would consider ‘fake liberalism,’ which in reality is liberalism taken to its logical conclusion: protection of one’s beliefs from any criticism or critical analysis whatsoever. While liberals once criticized this kind of behavior from white Anglo-Saxon males, they failed to see the ultimately disastrous consequences of their own worldview. Political correctness has run so rampant that most notable comedians – the truly observant member of society – refuse to play colleges anymore.

The atmosphere has gotten so bad in academia that college professors in public universities now have to include in their syllabus fair warning, or a ‘trigger warning,’ that the course may include ideas that may be objectionable to a student. Even so, this doesn’t appear to protect the professor from repercussions should they upset a student. I’ve seen it myself, when a philosophy professor hypothesized that Jews and Muslims have a prohibition against pork because of the threat uncooked pork posed two millennia ago. A Muslim student (a red headed Irish lad, strangely enough) reported our professor after expressing his displeasure with such speculation, nevermind that the student had signed up for a philosophy class.

Colleges, being in the business of making money like any other business, understandably don’t want to upset students who are paying tuition, which itself has become exorbitant. What has changed about today’s students though is that they now enroll in college with the expectation that there will be no challenges to their beliefs because they are special, whereas students of yesteryear went to college precisely because they wanted to be challenged in their beliefs and wanted to ‘be relieved of their ignorance’ while the onus was on them to become special*. While Caitlyn Flanagan, author of Better Watch What You Say: How the New Political Correctness in Ruining College, says what is happening in colleges now is the result of 30-years of identity politics and is the fault of parents, she doesn’t seem to see exactly what the result of parental coddling has done to the latest generation; it has produced the most narcissistic generation of all time. (This honor formerly bestowed upon The Greatest Generation of WWII era fame, who at least worked to deserve their narcissism.) Couple this with the rise of social media, and there is no wonder we are now living in the Age of Assholes.

[* Bill Maher sees the previous college model as outdated and the model for Millennials is more akin to a country club. Notice how observant a comedian is.]

It has long been observed that an American in their 20’s is primed to take up some great cause as hormones still raging from their emotional adolescent years linger in their bloodstream. But unlike college students of old, Flanagan notes, today’s college student has nothing invested in the battles they choose. They are not going to become estranged from their parents or friends or risk being shot by police during a demonstration or be reprimanded for shouting down a guest speakers whose ideas they disagree with. When a college student has nothing to lose by taking up a cause, they are compelled to believe their cause is all that more just and are even less inclined to hear anything to the contrary, which reinforces how wonderful they think they are. This is why David McCollough Jr.’s speech “You Are Not Special” back in 2012 caused such an uproar among liberal parents; the kids he was addressing were getting ready to go off to college. Can you imagine today’s college student, who has no grip on reality, entering the real world and expecting everyone to reaffirm their beliefs? You don’t have to imagine. It’s happening. If there is a culture war currently raging, it’s a war on reality in which everyone’s views are sacred. Socrates turns once more in his grave.

Clearly, even the most half-witted bumpkin knows not everyone’s views are equally valid or deserving of respect. (Kindly refer to my entry, The Flaw of Multiculturalism.) But what consequences has this attitude wrought? On one hand, gays and lesbians have finally been granted the right to marry and this is at least one thing that is as it should be. A critical eye has also been focused upon police brutality in America, which seems to be as it should as well. But this is where the slope starts getting slippery for social issues, as white American males become ever more vilified since they are traditionally regarded (by minorities and white college kids who have no interest in self-preservation and exhibit ‘white guilt’ though they themselves have done nothing wrong) as lacking the appropriate respect for other’s beliefs.

On the other hand, while these same college students and social activists bemoan the current state of The Union, they fail to do anything to prevent it from becoming worse. They don’t do anything to curb teen pregnancy rates which are the highest in the industrialized world. They don’t do anything about the root causes of gun violence which again are the highest in the industrialized world. They don’t do anything about incarceration rates, you guessed it, the highest in the industrialized world. They don’t do anything to address the problem of homelessness except enable the homeless by giving them handouts. They don’t do anything about math and science scores which rank in the lower half among first- and second-world countries. This may be why they don’t do anything about the national deficit, because they cannot add and see the problem for what it is. They don’t do anything to address the staggering lack of press freedom or journalistic integrity now that U.S media is less about facts and more about political posturing and grandstanding. And they surely don’t care that an ‘institute of higher learning’ would rather have their money than make them think. Are these things to feel special about?

Perhaps the surge of narcissism has a lot to do with the ever present specter of existential angst and having the tools to ignore it (that is, again, belief affirmation by parents and schools, and social media). But no matter how special anyone feels, they nonetheless remain a speck on a minor planet in orbit around an average star in an average galaxy in an unremarkable region of the universe who is going to die someday. And that means you. That means you are not special. Not even Steve Jobs was, so don’t feel bad.

The flood of narcissists ignore the basic premise of their own philosophy at their peril: If their own beliefs are beyond reproach because their specialness is a priori, everyone’s beliefs are beyond reproach and this leaves no room for criticism of even the most evil person or people, not even white people. Of course, the narcissist in all their assholishness, will reply that it doesn’t matter if anyone else is special; it is only their specialness that matters. Leave it to narcissists to ignore the flaw of their own argument regarding their specialness. But, I suppose it takes a special type of ‘intelligence’ not to see this.

Click here for a link to David McCollough’s speech, “You Are Not Special.” It is critical reading for today’s self-righteous college student. Assuming they can read.