It’s Okay to Be Wrong, Because You Are

How do you know someone has yet to achieve adulthood regardless of their age? The most common indicator is their ability to examine their own beliefs, objectively weigh those beliefs, and, as much as they may not want to, change their beliefs if the beliefs they held no longer align with the most logical position. Doing so is simple. Not easy by any measure, but adults do things that are not easy because it is the right and beneficial thing to do.

You would think the world would have plenty of adults then, but unfortunately the percentage of people who are over eighteen who meet the above definition is dropping astronomically year after year.

Today, and most likely tomorrow, people have their opinions formed by school, parents, and peers. This alone is fairly normal, which is why quality education and selecting the right peer groups is so important. Sadly, schools and parents rarely teach anymore how to think and instead teach what to think. This creates 18-80 year olds who then go through life choosing friends, communities, and media (not to mention politicians) which also hold the same beliefs that they do. Not only is that highly immature and destroys one’s potential but it also prevents someone from possibly becoming more correct in their position on an issue. This leaves us with many gown children (18-80) that go through life thinking their opinions on relationships, economics, business, science, faith, politics and such as being correct.

How insane and tragic.

Can you image going to school, reading just some selected books, hearing some selected lectures designed to teach you what to think, not how to think; then, after school spending years around people who agree with you, and then you actually thinking you are correct not only on your topic of indoctrination but on all issues you hold a stand on? How foolish!

Ask yourself; have you ever met anyone who agrees with you on ever topic? Have you ever met someone that you agree with them on every topic? Of course not! However, do you agree with yourself on every issue you hold? Of course you do, otherwise you either wouldn't hold them or you would be suffering from a form of mental illness. This means, by default, you believe everyone should believe as you do, or at least in your spectrum of ‘truth.’
 
Yeah, when you say it out loud it sounds preposterous.

“But Josh, I believe the best experts’ point of view on each topic I hold firm to a belief on, that’s why I’m holding firm on those beliefs.” Irrelevant. Do you agree with any one of your trusted experts on everything? Absolutely not, that would be idiotic. Again, this means that to your own mind you are the only (or most) right person on every issue out of the 117,000,000,000 people who live, or ever have lived, on the planet, per issue in which you hold a belief!

Now the idea that you are right sounds even more ridiculous.

Let’s say you have ten topics that you hold strong beliefs on:

1.      Personal Finance

2.      Business Maters

3.      Love and Marriage

4.      Abortion

5.      Climate Change

6.      Space

7.      Raising Children

8.      Religion

9.      Politics

10.  Healthy Living

We have already agreed that you don’t agree with anyone on every issue in which you hold a strong belief.

The chances of you being correct in your beliefs then is 1 in 1,170,000,000,000 Or to put it another way, there is a 99.99999999999% chance you are wrong on one or all of your beliefs!

Since that 99.99% chance of being wrong on all issues exists for all of us, then all of us need to grow up.

Adults sacrifice their wants to logic and pick up only wants that are logical.

Children allow emotions, desires, and preferences to form their beliefs and wants. Children then surround themselves with confirmation bias in the forms of media they consume, friends they choose, and research they conduct.

Grown-ups, on the other hand, routinely question if their beliefs still make enough sense to hold on to. They hear out the opposing positions. They contemplate and test the opposing positions. They then correct or adjust their beliefs according to the sound logic. They also are open to reconsidering that opposition in the future as they regularly reassess themselves.

Additionally, they also offer grace to change their minds too and actually celebrate it when someone is strong enough to admit their incorrectness and change. Children, on the other hand, think if someone holds a position, they must continue to hold that position for life. If you hold a position they agree with and you change your mind, they call you a traitor and a hypocrite. If you hold a position in opposition to theirs and change your mind to agree with them, they will forever be suspicious of you and pounce at the first sign of you changing your mind again.

People who change their minds and their behaviors are in no way hypocrites, they are adults. Hypocrites are people who say they believe in a certain type of behavior and then act out in opposition to those statements. A great example would be someone who says they are open-minded, who says they form rational beliefs yet act emotionally and attack those they disagree with beyond just the reasoning of their position.

For adults, and those who want to be, it is a great sign of maturity to say “I don’t know enough yet to make a position” or “I will take this information under consideration.” It doesn’t make you look foolish, it makes you look noble.

Adults; I know in a world full of old children, it can be hard to remain an adult when the when the poplar kids (media figures) ridicule you for no longer agreeing with them, but, remember that an adult is still an adult in a room full of kids, no matter how many temper tantrums they throw. Not only do you need to still act like an adult in the face of childishness, but you need to stand strong for the benefit of those children too, setting an example for them to one day follow.

This is why adults live the logical life.