Really ??

These are difficult days. We hold in our hands small machines that warp reality, that spin and prevaricate in a most insidious manner. We are bombarded with lies by those that are supposed to lead and greed has created an anything for profit culture. Many of us in 92128 are literally sick and tired. We are not calm. We are not happy.

It is time to ask ourselves two critical questions: 1) Why do we believe the things we do? 2) Why are we so easily duped?

When you plumb human history for the idea of skepticism you will find a serious philosophical universe that had its beginnings in the Greek tradition and subsequently interested some of our greatest minds including Descartes, Pyrrho, Socrates, Kant, Hume and Russel to name a few. The tension between knowledge and belief is , perhaps, one of the few constants in the human condition.Recently two fine authors have taken on our tendency to be duped. Malcom Gladwell has penned Talking To Strangers and Timothy Levine authored Duped/ Truth Default Theory and the Social Science of Lying and Deception. These books-and others- make it clear that we need to examine BELIEVABILITY more than ever before.

Levine and Gladwell both indicate that humans have a “default to truth”.. simply, this means that we want to believe others and will find ourselves duped as a result. Given this propensity, it is time to recruit our old friend DOUBT as an ally in these trying days. Even when we gather as much evidence as possible the reason to believe often eludes us.

What doubt does for us is simple. It gives us the space to suspend judgement. Our old friend Voltaire -as often happens-says it best. “Doubt is an uncomfortable condition but certainty is a ridiculous one.” Certainty is all around us. Some are certain that immigrants are the cause of all crime; others believe that the white race should be masters of the world. They are certain. They are also ridiculous.

Those of us in 92128 have been around a few blocks in our time. We don’t mind the energy it takes to question everything…particularly those things that people want to sell to us. We have become amateur Buddhists. Sidhartha Gautama Shakyamuni- aka Buddha- enjoined us to” doubt everything. Find your own light.” We are on the search.

In the current political maelstrom there is a powerful force that suggests we should simply believe what we are told by people in authority. Should we?

I doubt it.