‘Motivated reasoning’
I came across this term a few weeks ago and is still running through my head. Feels so perfect for this moment in time of internet discourse.
Lots of very smart people. Lots of very compelling arguments.
And yet… one has to acknowledge the uncanny way that the main thrust of a well-reasoned argument often only emerges post-facto - after the event.
And how the underlying moralistic embeddings are activated/deactivated primarily to align with political stripes.
you can reason yourself into any position you want to be true.
A long time ago, we might have been able to discern better the difference here between intelligence and wisdom.
A smart person can construct a well-structured and convincing argument for others. A dumb person cannot. That is a very visible and obvious difference of intellect.
But, it has always been true and known to be true, that both the smart and dumb person share in their ability to convince themself of the truth in the cause of their own desires.
Now contrast this spectrum of intelligence with the spectrum of wisdom.
A wise person recognizes that his ability to convince himself is no more and no less an ability to deceive himself. And so his intellectual guardrails are erected first and foremost internally rather than externally. Against self-deception rather than other-deception.
For the most dangerous lies are not the ones told to us, but the ones we tell ourselves.
A wise person recognizes that his ability to convince himself is no more and no less an ability to deceive himself.
A foolish person has no such qualms or instincts against self-deception. They will happily erect useless and fastidious guards against all manners of external arguments. Holding them firm with resolve. Yet leaving vulnerable their most precious of targets - their own heart and mind.
The foolish man battles the [culture] war without.
The wise man battles the [culture] war within.
I was working a short story on this .. and one line stuck with me.
[In response to a question on whether you are experiencing self-deceipt] “you could start by asking yourself one very quiet question. Not ‘Is it true?’ — because your brain is far too clever at answering that. Ask instead: ‘Am I afraid to look at the other side?’”
Then some scriptual influence on the topic … to him who has ears let him hear.
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused…”
In the Greek, the word for “calloused” (or “waxed gross”) implies a thickening - like a spiritual cataract. Motivated reasoning is the process of building that callous.
Every time you explain away a truth to protect your ego, the “skin” over your soul gets thicker, until the light simply can’t get through.