That’s just a story you are telling yourself
We may get back to three-minute videos one day, but for the moment, I want to explore some ideas around how we think. In support of that, you can find some of my thoughts on a substack linked here. Below is the extract of the first post, but follow the link to read more. I am hoping to produce videos in support of this content soon.
Let’s face it – you may be lying to yourself.
Preface: I don’t mean for this to be a political blog, but I may use political examples. They are examples and may or may not be what I believe. If you can’t handle that, then this substack may have been designed for you!
Every day I hear “right,” “wrong,” “should,” and “shouldn’t” used in mainstream media, social media, and conversation. Sometimes it is not that obvious, but what it amounts to, is people trying to define for others what they believe is right and wrong or should or shouldn’t be. Let me be clear – there is no “right,” “wrong,” “should,” and “shouldn’t” – those things are not real and if you believe they are, you may be lying to yourself and others.
Take an example of an average day on the RealClearPololtics.com page. On the day of writing this, there were 18 stories in the first part of the website. While they all have catchy headlines, a fun game is to read through them and ask yourself if there is a should, shouldn’t, right or wrong story under each link. Today, I counted nine headlines that would fit into this category without even reading the stories. Each was a writer or editor trying to tell me, the reader, what was right or wrong or what I should or shouldn’t do.
Let’s be generous and accept that they are not deliberately trying to deceive us. Assuming that, and that you might agree with some and not others, in all cases what they are saying is not the truth. It’s just truth as they see it. The difference matters because the reason for the difference matters. If you don’t understand it, you (like many of these writers) may just be lying to yourself.