The Answer to Everything is It Depends.
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The Answer to Everything is It Depends.
We don't know what we don't know.
Human beings have an existential struggle with Uncertainty. It creates discomfort, anxiety, and stress. We fight to create certainty and stability in our lives, to create order out of chaos. At least that's what we tell ourselves.
The Human Condition is a condition of uncertainty. The awareness that we have of our own ability to manifest realities, and the helplessness that we have to the forces of Nature and the Universe is a paradox that can drives us to madness and/or genius.
In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.
In the field of understanding reality and living life, we all suffer from this effect in some way. Stupid people don’t have a monopoly on this. Exacerbating this are the politicized, social signaling, biased media and social media channels. Copywriters optimize engagement with click-bait images and headings. Algorithms hijack attention using techniques to trigger addiction behaviors. Dopamine hyper-stimulation is a Dark Art that can used as a tool to manipulate behavior, habits, and belief systems.
Even though our attention span may not have literally deteriorated to be shorter than that of a goldfish, TL;DR culture is rampant. Too Long; Didn’t Read is a mantra for our disposable Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder way of life. It is the Internet equivalent of covering one’s ears and yelling “La la la la la!” in an attempt to invalidate someone else’s voice when one doesn’t want to engage in productive conversation and discourse.
TL;DR is closely related to Cancel Culture. Cancel Culture is TL;DR on steroids. Not only does one not want to read what the other person writes, one does not want anyone to read it, because it is uncomfortable, offensive, or dangerous. Conspiracy theories, dark realities, rumors, accusations, skeletons in the closet, doxing, boycotts, attacking someone’s job or livelihood, and physical violence are all fair game for weaponization in Cancel Culture.
Dunning-Kruger + Dopamine Dark Arts + TL;DR + Cancel Culture = Memetic Apocalypse
“What we have here is failure to communicate.”
What should we do about governance? Poverty? Inequality? Climate change? COVID-19? Factory Farming? Ecosystem collapse? Other existential and cataclysmic risks?
It depends.
What we do know is, in the words of our wise elder (no sarcasm), Mike Tyson:
“If you're not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you.”
It is important to be humble and conduct devoted study to the subjects we are passionate about. We cannot just blindly take action based on “consensus” without robust due diligence. It is time to Homeschool ourselves so we can be adults. Real adults, not the kind that we play on the Internet. We can do better.
What is inevitable?
Death. Taxes. Humility. Problems.
Begin with the Problem. Be humble. Study hard. That’s a start.