Summary
Choosing to live in a world separate from actual reality is not a healthy way to live life. Choosing realism is not the same as being pessimistic.
#FirstCoffeeThoughts
Choosing realism is not the same as being pessimistic. Denying reality and choosing optimistic bias is delusional.
It is possible to see things as they are and not make it an internally destructive event, especially if you are emotionally, mentally, and spiritually regulated.
It is not possible to deny reality for long periods of time and not have it affect your emotions and physical and mental states.
Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking. They affect the entire realm of cognition in both how a person perceives not only their own world but also the worlds of others.
Choosing to live in a world that you keep separate from actual reality is not a healthy way to live life.
That is not to say that people shouldn’t protect themselves from harm and trauma, it just means that delusion and willful denial are not the healthiest ways to accomplish that.
There will eventually be a catastrophic breakdown in the walls of the very flimsy Denial Castle you are living in.
There is only so long that one can board up windows and try to shut out the outside world … like the original Night Of The Living Dead … the zombies and farmhouse maintenance are both metaphors for not facing the truth of the changing world …
Eventually, you will be overrun by the truth and eaten alive by it.
The truth doesn’t set you free. It traps you in a prison of a new reality. I don’t think people want to be in a prison that they are AWARE they are in. It’s easier to be a prisoner when you don’t realize that you are. I would rather have truth.I would rather know. Because then I can choose to escape instead of spending my whole life not realizing I need to.
I wrote that line about truth when I was in the 7th grade … my understanding of what I needed to do to be able to face reality was something long since known to me.
What I discovered in middle school was a lot of people who masked their pain and/or took their pain out on others … they never looked within for the problem and that was something that bothered me greatly about my peers.
I was scared of them because they always seemed unwell and on the verge of exploding …
That feeling hasn’t changed for me and I’m past 50 …
What I see is still a lot of people denying truth, hiding from truth, and being willfully ignorant about the world around them … and these are the same people who are angry about small things, insignificant things … they project all that internal fear and terror of inevitable truths onto everything and everyone, instead of just strengthening themselves and learning to face reality.
I find such people to be very dangerous.
This is my personal philosophy of why I live my life as a realist:
The stronger you become in the face of adversity, pain, and even evil in your life, the more you can help other people who are suffering and have not yet the strength to fight or flee.
You can do more good for others in the world being emotionally, mentally, and spiritually balanced, than you can being a slave to fear, anger, and delusion.
It’s more important to help others than to protect false narratives and personal bias.
