doom letter #18

Since I have made some changes in my personal life, I have had several surprising interactions with people that I know. The source of this surprise seems to have been the veil of politeness on their parts along with my own veils blocking out what did not fit with my world. Everyone around me had an opinion about a particular aspect of my life that they did not share with me, and now, my actions have opened the flood gates.

To put aside my personal trials for a minute, all of this has made me think about what else I am missing because of the discomfort it may cause me. I am surrounded by evidence of an economic recovery, yet I look for the few minor contrarian points to show it is all a sham. After 6 years of anticipating Peak Oil, there is no greater evidence to prove a deterioration in overall production in the manner that was foreshadowed by the information I was consuming back when I started looking into it. This is all just a long way of saying that I suffer from two deficiencies we are all susceptible to, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. I seek out and find that which satisfies and reinforces that which makes my resolve stronger, all the while blocking any inputs which would arouse suspicion in a more rational mind.

When I listen to someone speak or read something that represents a threat to my opinions, I instantly swing into action to find some shortcoming I can exploit to bring the whole argument down. I am sure this same instinct to undermine that which I find threatening exists in my personal life, and likely exists in many of you, my dear readers. So instead of continuing to beat this dead equine, I present you all with a challenge which I will aspire to as well in the coming weeks.

It is fairly simple, open your mind to something that you would otherwise find so fundamentally repugnant that you would not normally make it through much of it. For me, I will attempt to take a more reasonable look, inspired by a talk I attended today by Joel Berg, at government policy addressing hunger in the United States. I would normally refer to something like this to government cheese, or some other reference that elicits the negative connotations that I have for these types of proposals.

So get to it. Just pick a subject and look at all the information that would normally turn you off.

with an open mind,

mike