This is one of the simplest of philosophic truths but seems it’s easy to forget.
Getting to the truth requires study. I was joking with my surgeon before a hand operation, “After you fix my hand, will I be able to play guitar like Carlos Santana?” He replied, “Yes! If you practice like Carlos Santana.” You must work for the truth. The doctor knew that. And anyway, he’s heard all the jokes.
I’ve noticed a lot people seem to seek an easy answer to life’s important questions. Why are we here? -> God . Why are we subjugated? -> conspiracy by the elites. Why is life so hard? -> blame others. Why can’t I play guitar like Carlos Santana? -> he has a “gift”, and I don’t.
I learned way too late in life, there are no simple answers to complex questions. Or simple questions for that matter. You must read the whole book, or a lot of books, to begin to get close to some of the answers. Isn’t a little study worth the effort to lift the veil of ignorance even a little? Don’t forget the veil of ignorance is invisible to the ignorant.
That reminds me of another old joke. In every family there’s that one guy that’s a little “off” and if you don’t know who it is in your family, it’s you! We don’t know what we don’t know. Have I missed any of the old clichés? While constantly reminding myself of how easy it is to jump to conclusions, I still do it without thinking about half the time. This little trap is embedded in almost every advertisement and used constantly by politicians, because they know it works!
What has really worked for me is learning as much as possible about the aspects of life that affect me. This must be done ahead of time, before confronting constant decisions popping up in everyday life. This way you’re prepared to make a better choice instead of going for what seems obvious at the time.
Here’s a good example based on a real-life health supplements company advertising on TV and everywhere else right now. I am not going to mention their name in public because fakers like to sue. Their premise is we need fruit and vegetables in our diets. This is totally true. They claim to have put all the fruits and vegetables we need in their pills. What a great product, right? After hearing and seeing their ads about 100 times I went on their web site to check it out. Lots more ads on there. So, what is really in this stuff? Legitimate companies always have a guaranteed analysis report done by a certified third-party lab, so I’ll just go look for that. It was easy to find the supplement contents by scrolling down on their landing page. Surprise! All they have is pictures of fruits and vegetables. I found no analysis report . On that contents page they have a picture of an apple. Could be just stems and seeds, right? When you boil down all the ad hype to the few specifics, they may truthfully be making this stuff from the sweepings off the floor of some produce packing plant.
I think a good idea is to keep our BS detector in fine tune. Practice by listening to ads, political speeches, news articles, etc. and focus on the specifics and filtering out all the puffery and rhetoric. Pay close attention to what is not said. Applying the old news reporters rule of always getting to the “who, what, when, and where” of the issue or subject can punch through the vale of BS.
The fact is ads, false claims, and fake news is in our face everyday and just getting worse as our communication platforms improve. Having a good BS filter will ease the stress and help us sort out what is right for us in life. So, keep that BS filter tuned up!
The Blog of Tim Schmitz 