21st Century Myths

We have parked a spaceship in orbit around Jupiter, discovered the gene attributed to aging, found a 9^th planet orbiting our sun, call almost anyone anywhere any time, seek and find information in microseconds, and developed self-driving cars.  Sounds like a scientific renaissance beyond the wildest dreams of folks a century ago.  And yet, I believe it is not our science that continues to keep us in turmoil.  It is our mythology.  These myths are so deeply held that for some even the possibility of questioning the myths leads to anger and outrage by the high priests of the myth.  And yet, until we release the myths from our belief systems we will be stuck in a state of constant conflict and self-destruction. 

A myth is a deeply held belief that is not grounded in fact, but is used to explain events and processes that are not superficially understood.  Myths can be self-fulfilling.  If I believe everything you say is a falsehood, then I will continue to find your statements to be false whether they are or not.  If a police officer believes you merit a ticket and follows you long enough, you will receive a ticket.  Neither of these beliefs are necessarily true, but can be self-fulfilling and thereby create a stronger bond between the myth and the myth believer.  Attempting to apply reason to the bond between myth and myth believer is a painful process often rejected by the myth believer.  Those who hold myths to be true relinquish their belief only in extreme circumstances and with much pain.  I believe the vast majority of the conflicts observed on the nightly news and our inability to work collaboratively together is due to those myths that are so deeply ingrained that we cannot fathom the truth.

Here are, as I see them, the major myths of this century:

Myth 1:  Competition is a good thing.  Through competition all things improve.

No matter how much data we have that shows this myth to be false the myth continues to be widely held.  Though competition may be a good thing when playing games, it tends to be destructive in every other arena.  The drive to “win” and the fear of “loss” embolden the myth holders to believe that any behavior is alright if it is in the name of winning.  Cheating, lying, misleading are all tolerable in a culture obsessed with competition and winning.  Professional sports are riddled with examples of such behavior.  The market is competitive, but it is immoral.  If winning means making more money then immoral acts are sure to follow in the practice of the myth holders.  If anyone wins, everyone else loses.  The end result of all competition is one winner and we know how monopolies operate.

Competition is destructive in all the areas we value most.  It is destructive in families.  It is destructive in relationships.  It is destructive in public schools.  It is destructive in religious belief systems.  It is destructive among nations.  Until we recognize that there is only a small set of circumstances in which competition may be a good thing and recognize the myth for what it is, a myth, then we will continue to have conflict and self-destruction.  We desperately need an era of collaboration.

Myth 2:  Knowledge is a synonym for wisdom.

The availability of Google, Siri, Cortana, Watson, et. al is wonderful.  At no other time in our history has the accumulated knowledge of human beings been so readily accessible.  But accessing facts is not wisdom.  Because I can instantly look up the number of students who failed a state standardized math test last year does not begin to truly provide insight into the nature of the test, the nature of the instruction, and the nature of the student.  Each of those variables are highly complex; so complex they produce a virtual infinite array of possibilities.  And yet there are so many who will look at those test data and assume they understand, assume they know all they need to know, and then pretend to propose strategies for improvement.  Such folks are truly fact morons.  If I hear one more legislator, one more billionaire, one more free enterprise charter school shyster announce that they have the answer I will bust.  These folks are morons.  They have stepped outside their field of knowledge, assumed that armed with Cliff’s Notes of facts they know all they possess the encyclopedia of knowledge need to know and proceed to continue the destruction of public schools via ignorance.  These folks do not know what they do not know and they do not know that there is such a thing as stuff they do not know.  Google cannot tell you what love feels like any more than it can tell you what a year of academic success looks like.  If you think it can, you too are a fact moron.

And yet for folks like Dan Patrick and Arne Duncan and John King and Bill Gates, etc., moron based fact finding is a hobby that hurts us.  Please stop.  Please know that you do not know.  That what you do know is not wisdom.  What you do not know you do not know is the core of the matter.  For every simple problem there is a simple solution and it is wrong.  Knowledge and facts are great, but it takes time and synthesis to grow wise with this knowledge.  We can ill afford further decisions or plans proposed by the un-wise.

Myth 3:  Accumulating personal wealth and/or power is the purpose of life.

In our secular, consumer based economic system acquiring stuff is viewed as success.  Million dollar homes, yachts, fleets of cars, etc., are sources of envy and yearning.  So much so that when there were little to no restrictions on banks and consumers borrowed way over their heads to acquire those goodies our entire economic system almost collapsed.  We have not learned.  We ship the labor portion of operations overseas because it is cheaper.  If it is cheaper, while triggering unemployment here we have created more wealth among the management of the company.  If wealth is the purpose of life, then any responsibility for our fellow human beings must take second place.  Or lower.  Sadly some do not learn this until much later as they face serious disease and the death that will come to us all.  Pursuit of wealth at the expense of values is simple prostitution.

Myth 4:  My belief system is right no matter what the facts are.

Both the Quran and the Bible make it clear that people who believe differently than the proponents of those two faiths may be subject to slavery and execution.  In that case, if for Muslims it is OK to kill Christians and for Christians it is OK to kill Muslims we will have an ongoing holy war.  Worse, the jihad fuels internal inquisitions.  How Christian are you?  Which sect of which belief do you follow?  While some Christians attempt to have the government reflect and support their version of Christianity some Muslims are warring to establish Muslim law as the law of their land.  There is little or no difference in those who want Sharia and those who want Christian principles and icons supported by the government.  Regardless of your belief, my belief system is right no matter what you believe or what the facts are.

I know folks who still believe Obama is a non-American Muslim.  There will never be enough facts to convince such morons that the truth lies elsewhere.  I know folks who still believe the earth is 6,000 years old and humans and dinosaurs simultaneously shared the planet.  There will never be enough facts to convince such fools that the truth lies elsewhere.  Yes, evolution is real and it is factually accurate.  And to make it worse, each of these irrational, idiotic belief systems holds up those who most stridently defend their ignorance as heroes or martyrs.  

Belief systems are myths.  Simple.  It is as hard to convince a Muslim that they believe just one of several sets of beliefs on planet earth and that no one can “prove” if any of the beliefs are true, other than the self-fulfilling mythology I discussed before.  Regardless, our underlying conflicts on the planet revolve around conflicting belief systems whether they are religious, economic or political.  In each arena, the believers of the myth hold so fast to their beliefs that solutions grow more and more impossible to attain.  In the Middle East it is OK to marry a 10 year old girl, beat your wife and execute infidels.  It is bad to dance, drink and have fun.

What shall we do?  What shall rational, thinking, open, honest folks do when confronted with these myths?  There is, I know, a temptation to run, to hide, to isolate, especially from the standard bearers of whatever myth you encountered.  We cannot do that.  To succumb to mythology ensures our future will not be rational.  Our future will be bloody and backward.  Despite our technology, we can easily enter another middle ages.

We should do two things.  First, we must recognize that each of these myths benefits someone, especially if everyone believes the myth.  Secondly, we must shift the burden of proof from the rational folks to the myth holders.  That can be done fairly simply.  I do not have to prove Zeus does not exist.  If you believe in Zeus then the burden of proof lies with you to prove he is real, not just that you believe he is real and you have personal internal non-observable interactions with him, but proof that we all can see.  If you believe that belief in Zeus is superior to belief in Ra, then you must first accomplish the proof outlined above, then a similar proof for Ra, and then demonstrate in what ways Zeus is superior.  If you believe all democrats simply want is to tax the rich, fund the poor and make government huge thereby taking away the rights of Americans, you are going to have to prove that, not just think it or believe it.  If you believe all Republicans are bigoted, white, rich people who do not want to pay taxes and want the government off their backs so they can make more money you are going to have to prove that.  If you believe that a socialist approach to solving economic issues is evil, you will have to prove that.  If you believe that a free enterprise approach to solving economic issues is moral, you will have to prove that.  And on and on.

Clearly, no one who believes these myths will be able to prove they are correct.  Hopefully, learning that we are all human and we each carry around a set of beliefs that inhibit us from working together successfully will be enlightening.  Hopefully, in time of conflict, solutions will appear from reason, not from enforcement of one mythology over another. Myth based decision making and action must stop.  We must view it as uncivilized, backward and harmful.  If we can do that, there is truly hope for the future.