The danger of assuming imposed truths and taking for granted everything you hear

Not everything we hear is true. We know it and, therefore, we have to accommodate the uncertainty that this generates for us. Because we are aware that behind kind words, sometimes, dark interests or shrewd manipulations hide. On the other hand, we also know that it is not good to confuse the truth with the opinion of the majority.

Classical philosophers such as Plato or Aristotle defined truth as that which corresponds to reality. Now, the real problem is that the truth is like a glass with many faces that can be seen from different perspectives.

My truth will not be the same as yoursbecause I see the world through my personal experience, my emotions and my biases.

It is often said that “The wolf will always be bad if we only listen to Little Red Riding Hood.” And, while it is true that it is not appropriate to accept an opinion as valid based on a single voice, sometimes a single person harbors an authentic truth within themselves. It is necessary to know how to intuit and discriminate the simple noise of noble sincerity.

The disturbing problem of the truth in everything we hear

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a successful young Nigerian writerHalf yellow sun

Adichie comments on how disturbing it is to have to confront certain minority discourses capable of influencing the great masses on aspects that they do not even know. In his case, he must correct every day all those who think that Nigeria is just a country of lions and giraffes, inhabited by uncultured and savage people.

People We usually have the feeling that the ideas we hold and defend are THE TRUTH and that we have arrived at them freely. But actually, These psychological constructs are determined by assumed STEREOTYPES and by value biases acquired almost unconsciously by many of these “unique stories”.

It is necessary to know how to recognize all those imposed truthsthose stereotypes that we have internalized and understand that our reality is made up of multiple points of view, voices and particular cases that contain within themselves the beauty of our world.

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Even if the truth is in the minority, it is still the truth

Maybe only Little Red Riding Hood reveals the wolf’s bad intentions to us, maybe only she raises her voice above the rest, but as often happens in our society, the truth always tends to be in the heart of the minority. Falsehood, for its part, defended by the masses is easier to accept, “it normalizes us.”

The danger of conformism

Solomon Asch was a famous psychologist who, through his social experiments, showed us that, Generally, we allow ourselves to be influenced by the opinion of the majority, even if it is erroneous. and we do it out of simple conformity.

Behind this behavior so common in many of our social contexts, there would actually be hidden an ancestral instinct of the human being, one that would help us not to be excluded or marginalized from the “great mass.” For our ancestors, feeling apart would sometimes mean the “non-survival”.

The power of small groups

We are sure that after reading these explanations You will think that the problem of everything lies in the weight of large social groups (politicians, the press, high shadow organizations…), those cause us to assume certain ideas as true when in reality they are not at all.

Now, the psychologists Tajfel, Billig, Bundy and Flament (1971) defined what is known as a minimal group to explain how Many times our own “microworlds” of family, friendship or work transmit their preferences to us.their ideas and stereotypes in such a subtle way that we integrate them almost without realizing it.

The truth is within you

Thinking that the solution to our problems, as well as that the truth of all things is within us, is, without a doubt, something complicated to accept. Our mind is full of prejudices, fears and limiting attitudes, intermingled in turn by that external noise that modern life brings us.

According to numerous ancient Greek texts, In the temple to Apollo in Delphi, a phrase was inscribed that has endured over time, but not in the monument itself. It was the following:

“Know yourself and you will know the gods and the universe.”

These wise words give us a clear example of what self-knowledge entails.: it is having a strong self-esteem to seek our own truth without falling into conformity. It is knowing how to listen and empathize to understand others just as we understand ourselves, and thus understand the reality of everything that surrounds us. Without fear and with a critical sense.

The truth is only meant for the bravefor those of us who listen, for those who dare to ask and for those who, with a noble heart, wish to know the sensitivities of this world.

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