Human beings — regardless of race, religion or culture — like to embrace any belief that is absolute. This is because absolute beliefs are simple, easy to comprehend, and false positives that offer us a false sense of security.
Q1 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
If we come to believe that a particular idea, place, or group of people are either all good or all bad, then we humans fool ourselves into thinking that we have got a piece of a particular equation all figured out. Such a binary viewpoint is psychologically comforting, allowing us to feel assured and in control. The more control we feel the more assured we feel so there is a feedback loop here which can and does take hold. Keep in mind, if the underlying belief is garbage, it doesn’t stop this process from taking place, provided we are constantly reassured. Now, think of propaganda, which is, of course, a group reassuring another group of a particular narrative.
Consider that if you have decided that a group of people are all bad, then all you have to do is stay away from them or keep them away from you. Life just got easier. If you decide that a group of people are your enemy, all you have to do is make war against them and once they are all gone, life would surely be better, right?
The problem with absolute thinking is that it causes pain and suffering in the life of the person who adheres to an all-or-nothing attitude in any facet of his thought process. This is because the person is routinely exposed to contradictions to his beliefs, which creates a sense of threat to his world view. Eliminating the threat (cancelling) brings about relief and even the cancelling of any contradiction provides reassurance. See how this works?
Absolute thinking doesn’t just come into play in prejudices; it is a primary factor in how people live their lives. Have you ever encountered people who have come to believe that if they engage in one particular activity, all their problems will go away. People whose answer to literally everything centres around one thing.
Absolute thinking is the genesis of, among other things, genocides. The reason I bring all of this up is because when I first viewed statements about climate change I knew immediately we had a problem on our hands. The statements were and are universally absolute: “the science is settled.” I knew that we were dealing with a cult, not science. It is why the governments’ statements about carbon zero and the road to zero emissions are dangerous. Because they’re absolute, allow for the demonization, and hence eradication of anyone that opposes this narrative. It is literally impossible to get to truth without the ability to view the possibilities of other or new facts. This is true of any field, not just climate science.
As of right now you’ll notice the “absolute,” which cannot therefore be questioned can be found in the following topics:
- Covid
- Climate change (CO2 emissions and “net zero”)
- Ukraine
- BLM
- LGBQT
- Critical race theory
- Privileged white males
