Schoolin’ Life–Beyonce

 

If I weren’t wrapped up in my thesis I would write a much longer post about this. I’ll admit it’s not what some would call a thrilling read but, in the grand scheme of things, I think I’m much better off having read this post by Ian Pollock at Rationally Speaking about Why you should hold your beliefs at arm’s length than not.

The basic idea is that you should never hold your opinions or beliefs as part of your identity. It makes us much less likely to change our minds and we feel personally attacked when people question that particular belief. Pollock also points out that when we identify with a belief, we tend to want to believe other things that are only associated with that belief:

Let’s say you notice, as a fact about yourself, that you favor low taxes and a generally small government on ethical and practical grounds. You look in a dictionary and, lo and behold, that is a big part of the definition of “conservative.” Out come the phonemes: “I am a conservative.” Aren’t words great?

What you will probably not notice, however, is that increasingly when you don’t know what you think about some issue yet (say, your country’s stance on foreign affairs), you will take your cue from other self-identified conservatives, as opposed to thinking it through yourself and then describing your conclusion in political terminology. The normative self-definition has staged its coup d’etat. Whatever “conservatives” think, that is going to be your opinion. Of course, when I put it that way, it looks ridiculous. But from the inside, this process feels perfectly rational — like wisely throwing your lot in with a really smart group of people.