Our insane thought patterns

Why everything we think is wrong

First things first…
There is a thing I need to get off my chest before we get started:

We are stupid.
Everyone of us…
Without exception.

That is kind of an odd thing to start a story with — I guess. But it certainly gets the point across. The problem being: We tend to see ourselfs as… being quite clever — frankly…

There is only one single concept you need to understand, in order to grasp the amount of our own stupidity:

Everything we think is based on our surroundings.

Now is the time for disagreeing with me, because if you follow me further down the rabbit hole, you might get attached by the concept that follows. So make up your mind and make a decision…

…

If you’re still reading this, well… I guess you are still here. Which can only mean one thing: You don’t disagree. But how do you actualy know if you agree or not? What was the process behind this decision? Did the idea just come up inside your head? Or how else did you make it?

See! Thats what the whole article is about: There is a process behind everything you think.

I feel like there is a basic thing you need to know in order to grasp this topic & understand why our thoughts are essentially wrong. So in order for you to understand the insanity behind our thoughts, you should understand how thoughts are made up in our head — I’ll give you a very rough break down.

If you don’t believe in godly intervention in every thought in your head — like the old greek actually did — then there is only one other parameter worth considering to explain the making of our thoughs in a different fashion that I did a few lines above: Genetics.

Let’s cover that real quick.

Sorry Genectics — but you don’t cut it

There are are few things you need to understand about genetics in order to exclude this source from our thoughts.

1. Every gene has a trigger: Means, just because you have a certain gene, it does not mean that it has to be active. You could for example have a genetic predisposition for violence and be the most peaceful person on earth, because this predisposion did not get triggered — ever. There are actually quite a few studies proving this point. Very interesting to consider are experiments with monkeys, that are, from a genetic point of view, hard wired to be afraid of snakes. This behaviour however never emerges if they don’t see an other monkey that shows this type of fear.
2. Genes do get activated and deactived all the time: I don’t want to tap into pandoras box of esoteric believes on this one — because this fact has been heavily misused by the esoteric communities. There are special sound frequencies you can listen to in order to active or deactivate certain genes — which is of course bogus from a scientific point of view. Fact of the matter still: Genes get activated and deactived all the time.
3. Respect the surroundings: If genes don’t necessarily define who we are, what else does? If they can be actived & deactived and are triggered by our experience, then our surrounding and experience play a much more vital role in the development of our personality that we might initialy think.

Now, because I had many discusions about this topic with every different kind of scientists — from medicine, to biology (& especialy neuro biology), psychology, philosophy & even physics: No of course its not an absolute truth. Genes do play a role in the development of our personality. I see it rather for what it really is: An increased probability — not a compelling need. There is something that is much more important in the process of your development.

Hello — Stimulus from our surroundings

As I mentioned earlier: You should consider your surroundings if you want to understand what makes up the thoughts in your head. Let me explain the… well, I like to call it the:

1. Tree principle: If you compare the development of a personality to the growth of a tree, you can break down the humongous complexity to something you can actually grasp. Image you support a young seeding with a crooked stake. Eventually the whole tree will be crooked some day. If you do the same thing to a grown out tree — the effect will be negledable. Which means nothing different than:
2. The earlier the stimulus the bigger the effect. If you consider the tree princple — you can very easily understand why this point matters. Even before our birth to be precise: There are studies showing that babies are born with a certain wiring for the language their mother used to speak. Why? Because they experience things even before they are trown out in this world. Why? because….
3. We learn through observation & imitation. Which makes a lot of sense actually. We have our senses, which we use, to experience the world around us. We see a certain type of behavior and we imitate it. We get told certain things, by people whom we trust, and we believe them to be true. Thats how the basis of our personality is build. The earlier the stimulus the bigger the effect. And let’s not forget the most important point…
4. Everything is a stimulus. Just because you do not consciously experience something it does not mean you don’t experience it at all. Because everything you ever see, hear and feel will be for ever stored in your brain. You might have trouble to consciously recall this information but it is there and your subconcious mind has access to it.

“So?”, you might say, “Why should I care?”. You should because of… well…

… You.

This is you! Everything you define yourself to be. The very essence of your personality. Which is the basis for everything you think, ever thought, and will think. And in effect everything you ever did and are going to do.

Ah… Wait. There is actually one more thing you need to understand. This might get a little confusing, so please bear with me on this one:

The vicious circle we live in

As mentioned earlier — your personality is a product of your surroundings. But what exactly shaped your surroundings? I guess we should exclude the possibility of them popping magically into existence (which is not impossible but highly improbable and thus improvable). So let’s break it down. Starting with…

1. Societies are formed by people. You might call this obvious, but its highly important. The society we live in consist of humans. People like you and me. With their own agenda — their own personality. There are similiarities — common concepts we believe in. Which leads me directly to the next point, being…
2. Societies are formed by earlier societies. This is is a little tricky, because it adds one additional layer of complexity to the equation. If every member of a society is formed by his surroundings, then in return the surroundings consist of people who make up this surrounding. Imagine our values and our collective mindset as being clay figures that we keep adding up on, changing and destroying from time to time. The basis for the clay figure has been laid quite a long time ago — all we do is add or remove a notch. Which means nothing other than…
3. The earlier something happened the bigger the impact for all of us. We can use the tree example on a higher level. Because the shapping of our collective clay figure is quite a lengthy process we tend to forget that we are actually shapping it. Not everyone of us on the same level though. Remember the crooked tree? If the figure is already looking like a vase you might have trouble turning it into a plate. If you get that, we can consider the most important point:
4. Nothing used to be like that. What do I mean? It’s actually very easy. We accept certain things as a law of nature. Most of the values we hold, most of the things we believe in, most of the facts we are certain about. Fact of the matter however: There are no laws. Everything our society believes in, has been constructed by earlier societies. There is a reason we fight wars, there is a reasons we eat meat, there is a reason we grow plants, we believe in god, we live in family structures & let’s not forget we see the world just the way we do. The reasons is: Someday in our past, probably very long ago, somebody defined it this way. And we didn’t change it — yet…

I hope you recognize the viciousness of this circle, that we live in. The only important factor seems to be the order of events. The earlier an event occurred, the bigger the impact. If our ancestors would have abandoned eating meat as they were hungry and instead picked more berries — imagine how the world would look like. If we would not have invented the concept of god, well… try to imagine the impact of this change.

However obvious the previous points might seem to you. Think about the importance of this concept! Everything we believe in is rooted in the believes of our predecessors. Which means… wait…

Are you still with me?

If there is one take away that science has taught us, then the fact that every theory is correct until proven otherwise. Everything we believe in, every single thought in your head, every value our society holds is nothing different than a theory. Something we came up with.

There is no way you can rely on anything you actually think. Because you are a product of your surroundings and your surroundings are product of the previous surroundings and so forth. Nothing we ever came to recognize as a solid truth, has to be true. Huge bummer — sorry…

The result of that being…

Everything we think is wrong

Or let me put it in a way that does not trigger a reactance reaction in you: Not everything you define as true can be true from an objective point of view. Even worse — actually: There is no objective truth. There is no objective point of view — at all. Right and wrong are subjective constructs we define in our head. Based on what our surroundings defined as being wrong or right. Change the country and your perception will change. Talk to other people and your values will crumble. But we don’t talk to people that hold other values — we stay away from them, because we think they are weird. Its a type of self protection mechanism.

So here is the key take away for you:

We don’t see the world as it really is — but rather how we want to see it.
Even worse: If we would see the world as it really was, we would die out.
- Have a look -

So in essence: Yes, we are stupid. Because we don’t realize the amount of our own stupidity. We think we are right about things, because the way we think is based on values that have never been questioned.

So please go ahead and question things! Because this is how progress is made. This is how we change things — how we, as a society, advance to the next level.

Let’s get to the next level!

— [ MR ] —