The Most Dangerous Mistake
We live in a world with words and images bombarding us in each moment. Especially those of us who plug into services like Twitter and Facebook receive messages almost constantly.
The TV screens and headlines scream ideas and a way of seeing the world that paints many pictures. These words and images are part of a system of ideas that percolate throughout society. The language and thinking exist as a sort of force that self-perpetuates messages through society with an internal logic. People are often merely conduits for these movement of words and ideas. Many minds are polluted with concepts and reactive ideas that bump up against the things we read and hear and see.
One of the concerning things about this system of words and phrases and ideas is it is imbued with many theories or guesses about society and the way the world works, all of which are inexact. Almost all of our historical theories have later proven to have been wrong, and yet there is so much confidence in the world today. People seem so certain about economics and science and politics. This certainty is scary because it conveys heft and force as these types of notions percolate through society deepening the infection of ideas in people’s minds.
We are really these little aliens living here on Earth trying to figure out how this whole thing works.
Sure we’ve done some cool stuff like built airplanes and harnessed electricity and made skyscrapers. But we are still just learning about things like our brains. Our genetics. The way our physical world operates.
When it comes to things as abstract as economics the true uncertainty around the theories we currently hold is staggering. The current state of the world has never existed before so we are in the midst of a giant real time experiment. No one can know what the right answer is because there is no data to analyze.
Humans infected with overconfident ideas are dangerous and sad. They remain trapped in the language and concepts that percolate through society rather than pausing to recognize these things are mere approximations.
Meditation. Prayer. Laugher. Nature. Being aware that each day and Moment is a gift.
These practices have a way of snapping us out of the polluted mindset we often find ourselves in.
When we pause and see that these words and ideas are like an infection that pollutes our minds, we can break free of them. We can appreciate beauty. We can find doubt. Curiosity. We can see one another as these fellow humans here living our lives sitting side by side.
We can step out of the categories and names we use to describe one another. No politics. No races. No judgments. Just people.
Letting go of our confidence and embracing the true uncertainty of all of our theories is just one way out of the trap of language and ideas. But is an important one because it also imbues more nuance and thoughtfulness to our participation in the societal maze.
Perhaps we can use that vantage point to remember that these words are but fleeting guesses in the vast universe where we little humans live.
