Think the Dark Ages were a distant memory from centuries ago? Think again! Yes, we’ve come along way since then in terms of technological development and scientific knowledge, but human nature has not made similar strides. Even if you claim to be a rational and logical person (like I), I’m willing to bet that a large number of beliefs that you hold onto have little or no logical basis. Explaining why this is so will easily take up another book and is besides the point of this article, which is to urge you to understand how irrational and illogical beliefs may be holding you back and how this is keeping YOU in the “Dark Ages.”
Even many commonly held beliefs today will probably be disproven some time later in the future. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know, and this includes beliefs that we may not even think twice about questioning in the present. I’ll admit that even I, as the person writing this article and someone with a highly scientific background, probably still hold onto many of these beliefs without even knowing which specific beliefs are problematic!
Culprit 1: Old Wives’ Tales and Crony Beliefs
I categorize everything that your friends and family (not just limited to your mother) tell you as “true” with little/no rigorous logical explanation why as an “old wives’ tale”. No, they’re not purposely trying to mislead you but rather, they generally have your best interest in mind. However, people will continue to believe certain things even long after science has disproven them due to human nature. For example, there was the belief from the latter 20th Century that all fats are bad, the practice of bloodletting, or the superstition in South Korea that running an electric fan while sleeping can kill you.
Before the Internet and especially before books, TV, radio, and other forms of communication we take for granted today, this was a common way to pass knowledge. And many helpful beliefs did end up getting passed along this way. But so did a lot of ideas that weren’t helpful or even downright harmful. It was very difficult for one group of people to communicate their ideas with another isolated group of people, and even if one group had disproven a particular idea or discovered a new theory, it was nearly impossible to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. In this environment, listening to the advice of your elders and other respected members of your community is pretty sensible indeed.
Kevin Simer calls these “Crony Beliefs”. His article provides a far detailed theory of how these beliefs come about. In short, a lot of these beliefs are accepted not for their logical and factual merits but to make an impression on others. People bond over common beliefs and that’s just human nature as well. It would be easy to simply tell you to drop all of your “crony” beliefs from now on, but it’s not that simple: plenty, perhaps even the majority of your so-call “crony” beliefs are actually perfectly rational and can stand the scrutiny of logical reasoning. So use logic and rationality to assess the validity of a belief, not whether believing it will boost your social status or someone else’s.
Culprit #2: Hidden Agendas and Vested Interests
Perhaps this ties in to #1 but often times, people have a vested interest in a certain idea and want you to believe it is true not because it is true but because it’ll serve their purpose. If you’ve ever searched for reviews of a particular product or service and find dozens of bloggers lauding the effectiveness of that product or service. Most of the time, they’re an affiliate who is receiving a commission for everyone who buys the product or service from their website. Some sites are rather upfront with disclosing their affiliate relationships, but many aren’t; if you’re unsure if someone is getting paid to spread a particular piece of information, you should go to a site like Reddit or Quora and ask for a second opinion.
Also look out for hidden political agendas. Although scoping out a person’s political affiliations or other potential vested interests can be tedious, it is prudent if you smell something fishy with the advice they’re giving. If they stand to benefit tremendously if you were to take on their advice, then that’s a red flag.
Never take an advice from a salesman, or any advice that benefits the advice giver. — Nassim Taleb
So what should you do?
You might think I’m urging you to Question Everything and if we have unlimited time and brain capacity, that’s exactly what I would prescribe. But I understand that’s not practical either and not what I live by. You and I probably hold countless pieces of outdated or irrational information in our minds and it’s completely harmless as long as we don’t act on it or spread it to others. Even questioning everything we say or do is still an overwhelming way to go about life as well, so I urge you to use additional filters to keep your sanity in check. For example, if someone advises you against doing something that will bring about a lot of pleasure, rewards, or other benefits in your life, you may want to critically assess their advice, or when you’re making a major life decision or doing something that puts a lot of time and money at stake. After all, our ancestors didn’t have Internet access during the Dark Ages and had only a fraction of the knowledge available today, and we’re in a much better position to use this knowledge to our benefit today.
