Truth

Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.

-Mark Twain

I’ve always been a strong believer in truth. I want to know the truth, and everyone should know the truth. My feelings have changed over time. 

What if the truth makes people depressed? What if the truth takes away meaning from your life? What if the truth leads to others getting harmed? If only philosophy could be so simple. 

I strive to understand the world, but many would prefer ignorant bliss. Others can’t handle the truth. I think most can’t handle the truth. Even if they’re screaming and begging for it.

Our country lacks religion. There are those like Sam Harris think we can all realize religion is stupid and still have a moral framework. To Sam and others, I say-- wonderful theory, wrong species.

Astrology and other pseudosciences have grown. These are narcissistic, determinist practices that don’t fully replace an entire religion. Current events have shown more than ever that people crave religion. People crave purpose. If you take away the practices that filled these needs, others will fill the void.

Condoleezza Rice remarked that when America steps back as the world police, others fill the void. The others are unfortunately always Russia and China. So yes, America doesn’t want to be the world police, but for all the shit we get, we’re 100x better than the alternatives. This is the same with religion.

Christianity isn’t great, but it’s sure as hell a lot better than the great awokening. Our country needs religion.

If you could design a religion from scratch, what would it be?

I recently read a book on Adlerian psychology. Dale Carnegie and others were inspired by Adlerian psychology to change their lives and spread his gospel. I think it’d be massively helpful for our society to adopt his teachings. Like all religions, there are some pretty radical ideas. One of my favorites is the belief that trauma does not exist. It’s all in our heads, and we’re choosing to be affected by our past. We are choosing each moment how to frame the story of our lives. Are they true?

They’re true in the sense that if you take a toastmaster’s course, you’ll get better at public speaking. Is it because you’ve learned the intricacies of public speaking from people at your local chapter? No, the truth is that they’re getting you to feel confident. It’s true that pick up artists can help you get girls. Is it from lines they feed to you? No, it’s because of the confidence they give you. It’s all placebo.

Adlerian psychology is a religion of constant self improvement. Improve yourself before bothering others. It’s supportive and helpful. It’s a great capitalist religion. It’s a beautiful thing to believe and believing it makes it more likely to be true.

I think those who care about and discuss free will are woefully misguided. It doesn’t matter if it exists or not, and we should all believe it exists because we are better humans for it. If everyone adopted a philosophy that isn’t true but improved their lives, I’d be massively in favor.

At the core, I’m a consequentialist. I believe people should be judged by the consequences of their actions. But that’s not totally fair. In poker, you can play a hand perfectly and still lose. The same goes for life. In reality, we should judge ourselves on the expected value of our actions. We just have to be careful not to delude ourselves.

An expected value consequentialist weighs truth and where to apply it.