“You take the blue pill…the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” – Morpheus (The Matrix)
Let me ask you…How do you know if something is the truth or not?
We all come into this world as blank slates, completely oblivious to how this world really works.
Because our brains are plastic, we take in new information like sponges. We rely on our parents, teachers, friends, and content creators to tell us what is true and what is false while we’re growing up.
So before we even enter adulthood, we already have existing beliefs about this world. Depending on what these beliefs are, this can either be a good thing or bad thing.
At this point in my life, I strive to always search for the truth.
What is true and what is false?
The only problem is that there are so many different manipulations of the real truth on the internet, and it’s not like our educational systems are doing a good job at teaching us how to think for ourselves.
So the issue here is that, of these sources that give us information, many of them are not giving us the correct information.
Due to the ulterior motives of many journalists, it requires extensive research and logical thinking on one’s own part just to figure out if something is the truth or not.
Unfortunately, this is just the current state of media in our society today.
Many of us are not taught a process about how to separate fact from myth, and the natural consequence of this is the majority of people blindly accepting things that they read on the internet without questioning what they are reading.
What happens if one doesn’t take truth-seeking into their own hands?
What happens if somebody just takes everything for granted?
The result will be this individual having mental models and beliefs that aren’t centered around the truth.
Their views about the world will not be consistent with how the world actually works, and this is a huge problem…Not only for themselves, but for the rest of us as well because we have to deal with them.
Unfortunately, many of us are and we don’t even know it.
For your own sake, it would be in your best interest to start challenging things that you currently accept to be true.
To think that many people are living their lives in a fantasy world is frightening, and the last thing I want is to experience a fabricated version of reality.
No, I want to experience reality‘s reality.
After all, our experiences of the world are within our own minds. So if the weird voice in your head keeps nagging you with unverified beliefs and cognitive biases, those are the beliefs that will guide your actions.
There were many times that I’ve made bad decisions, and one of the reasons for why was because I didn’t have the correct information about the consequences of each action. If I was more informed about the truth, then I would’ve made a different decision in hindsight.
Generally, when we make decisions, there is always a focus on what the outcome of Choice A will be versus Choice B or Choice C and so on.
If we try to forecast the outcomes of each decision based on a faulty model, then these predictions will be false.
We will then prioritize a certain action over other actions due to a false promise that it’s going to deliver a result that would never be delivered in the first place.
In other words, we’re literally screwing ourselves over when we don’t have the correct information at our fingertips.
But don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m an expert at finding the truth either. I have biases and false mental models that guide my life, yet here I am preaching this to you all.
Pretty hypocritical, right?
Our unverified beliefs are the main reason why we are so divided as a nation, as people just have different views about politics, economics, religion, and more.
Obviously, it’s impossible to have a universal agreement around these topics, but oftentimes, the perspectives that people build around these subjects are based on falsified truth.
We also all have egos, so it’s our “destiny” to fight and cancel everybody that doesn’t agree with our narrative…Right?
It’s one thing to be ignorant about the truth, accept this fact, and then seek to become more informed, but it’s another thing to be delusional and stubborn in your own beliefs without even making an effort to seek the truth.
And it’s a completely different thing to vindictively try to cancel somebody who has different beliefs than you…Yet, this is the world we live in.
I’m not.
The current state of cancel culture and our tendency to believe falsified truths make it hard for me to be optimistic about our society.
Ever since middle school, I have experienced cancel culture firsthand. It has gotten to a point where I realized that, unless you have power, there is nothing you can do to avoid this state of having to watch what you say.
Experiencing the corruption of power in our educational, corporate, and legal systems firsthand gives me no choice but to aim to become powerful.
Nothing that is negative in this world is going to change unless those in positions of power and influence become change agents themselves.
So rather than aiming to be a change agent, what you really should be doing is aiming for power and influence first, as there is no change without capital and politics.
There are too many corrupt people in this world who have money, power, and influence (cough SBF cough Madoff), and the only way to mitigate the corruption is to get to the top first.
So in an altruistic sense, it’s in the best interest of our society for you, the ethical change agent, to selfishly seek money and influence. Rather than despise capitalism, why not use it for good?
This is the way the world works.
You can either accept this truth and figure out what to do about it, or you can stay delusional and continue to make noise that will not be heard.
Chase success, and then be the change that you want to see.
Want to practice seeking the truth?
Well, here’s something to think about then.
JL