We're the Smart Ones, Right?
Recently my daughter recommended a blog site, YouAreNotSoSmart.com. Specifically, she recommended episodes #62 and #65. Feel free to visit the site AFTER you read MY blog post.
These two episodes examine how we think, and how our thinking and our perceptions are often highly flawed. If I point out to you how other people often cannot see the plain truth when it is right in front of them, I’m sure you could commiserate. But how about if I point out that YOU often cannot see the plain truth when it is right in front of YOU? WHAT! Just keep in mind, that for every person you observe who is maddingly obtuse, there are that many people saying the same about you.
And that’s what You Are Not So Smart is getting at. The one podcast illustrates how mathematicians have found answers to seemingly unsolvable problems that other people could have solved, but those other people were not approaching the problem rationally. The other podcast gets into the psychology of how we think, or THINK we are thinking, and how we so often misjudge what is right in front of us. Yes, I’m talking about YOU. And ME. And, especially, THEM. You KNOW we can’t trust THEM!
I think the words “liberal” and “conservative” have degenerated to the point that they are both essentially meaningless. We all tend to suffer from misperception, and some of those misperceptions are very nearly universal among the entire population. For instance: Do you think that previous generations were pretty limited intellectually, and that people today are much more knowledgeable and wiser? If so, why do you think that? What if, in fact, those previous generations recognized things that you cannot see? If your first thought is that that is ridiculous, you maybe have a minor case of confirmation bias. Or perhaps a BIG case.
The one little issue I had with the two aforementioned podcasts is that they make no consideration of our social development. The podcasts deal pretty much with relatively recent history, and who WE are. Fine, but what about THEM, those people who lived in the past? Those people that we presume to be better than, just as we presume that our political party is the smart one.
What about those people of olden times? Those people of olden times had a very different life than us. Most had to be very close to self-sufficient. How well would you get by, if there was:
NO electricity,
NO indoor plumbing,
Very little OUTDOOR plumbing,
NO TOILET PAPER!,
NO transportation besides horses, which most people couldn’t afford,
NO food except what your raised on your own land,
NO cloth except what you wove by hand on your loom,
NO clothes except what you sewed by hand from your hand-woven loomed cloth, and
NO heat except from wood you cut down the summer before.
And THAT is an INCOMPLETE list. Yet, people managed. How well would YOU manage? Those old farts had a range of experience, knowledge and judgement that you have probably never even considered, much less encountered.
But I have a point beyond how resourceful these folks were: They lived their lives almost completely in the world of physical reality. A person’s ideology wasn’t going to get them anything. Applying themselves to the physical realities was pretty much a full-time job. Misjudging that reality could leave them starving. Yes, they had religion and belief systems, just as people do today. But there was no Starbuck’s to sit and discuss it at, if you get my drift.
Let’s consider a few other things that become apparent when we replace Us vs Them with Now vs Then: Today we have perfectly good mathematicians and psychologists, the likes of which the previous world has not known. Mathematicians are a big part of what makes our technology work. You know, the technology that sees to it that we DON’T face starvation, that provides us with the comfort of heat, AC, electric light, and every sort of electronic entertainment. And abundant food. And better healthcare. Definitely better healthcare. And toilet paper! Psychologists understand our minds so very well. And yet the same sorts of people keep on suffering from the same sorts of misperceptions. What I’m getting to is, a relative few have advanced our technological and productive capabilities far beyond what has existed in earlier times. But, have the rest of us advanced? Liberal or conservative, have WE advanced beyond the thinking of those old farts? I would say no. I think we have regressed.
We dedicate ourselves to confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. We choose sides, where sides are really not called for. We strongly embrace ideologies that we have not bothered to test against either rationality or reality. We have little reason to question our judgement, because misjudgment is not likely to lead to starvation or death. So, hey, let’s all just go to Starbuck’s and reinforce each other’s biases. We watch videos and TV shows that subtly (and not so subtly) lead us to believe what others want us to believe.
So, how about those old farts? They were people, just like us, and with similar minds. They had misperceptions, but at least those misperceptions were tempered by an ongoing daily dose of physical reality. No water, unless you go get it. No heat, unless you cut logs in the summer. No entertainment, unless you create it yourself.
We can get at some of what those old fart’s thought. For instance, they came up with the story of the Three Blind Men and the Elephant. That story illustrates that various people can experience the same thing, yet interpret it entirely differently, each convinced that their view is the correct one. In other words, centuries ago, people recognized what psychologists are trying to make us understand today.
How about The Emperor’s New Clothes? The point is obvious; that a vast number of people can be convinced to see something that just is not there. Oh, but that doesn’t happen today, right? With the aid of instant communication, it happens MORE today, and FASTER. “Influencers” race to be the first to report on whatever the issue du jour is, knowing that if they can get their scenario planted in your brain before anyone else, you are likely to use their “interpretation” as your basis. And then you are liable to accept or reject other reporting based on if it dovetails with your initial impression. Sharyl Attkisson, a well-known but unaligned journalist has a book, The Smear, that shows very specifically that The Emperor’s New Clothes is a story that is very much in play today.
Perhaps I can sum it up with something I have said numerous times; “The more sure you are that you are right, the more likely you are to be wrong.” That makes sense, when you THINK about it. Once a person is convinced that they are right about something, they no longer feel a need to gather information or consider contrary possibilities. Those who very quickly draw conclusions fail to see a lot of what is right in front of them. Or, indeed, they see things that are NOT there. Or fail to see that “those” people’s view of reality is as valid as their own.
So, who are the really smart, insightful ones? Those old farts from centuries ago, or the people of today? If you are sure you know, you probably don’t….