Progress and Conformity

The social costs of changing one's opinion are holding you - and civilization - back

Progress depends on ideas, and ideas come out of human minds. Thus, if a human mind cannot create, change, or kill its ideas, it is stuck in stasis—unless the mind holds only completely true and correct ideas about the world (which, as we know from Popper, is impossible, since we are all fallible). Therefore, the environment inside people’s minds must be one where ideas can freely emerge, evolve, transform, or die.

Ideas emerge through creativity (which I do not understand yet), but the transformation of ideas happens through criticism and testing against other ideas. Ideally, the ideas your ideas are tested against—coming from other people and the rest of the world—should be relevant. For example, if you hold the idea that the Earth is flat, ideally you will encounter explanations that challenge this idea. Thus, when exposed to criticism, the idea will either evolve or die.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Most ideas come packaged in clouds of other ideas, which often include anti-rational ideas—ideas that prevent themselves or other related ideas from being criticized. For example, the mind that holds the idea that the Earth is flat may have a partner who also thinks the Earth is flat. This might introduce the thought, “If you criticize this idea, it might upset my partner.” Sometimes ideas come packed into boxes lined with morality—“If you believe this, you are a good person, and the ones who don’t are bad people.” These ideas are hard to change or kill because facing the fact that the people you hated were right all along can hurt (“What if I’m wrong about everything else too?” → “Does this mean all my values are wrong?” → “Do I have the wrong friends?”). Socially, it can be hard to change one’s opinions. This difficulty can scale according to the size of one’s social circle and the types of opinions they hold.

Some opinions come pre-packaged with anti-rational memes such as the morality one above. Examples include the whole galaxy of ideas that emerge from Collectivism, which is about prioritizing society above the individual. This kind of ideology has the unfortunate effect of alleging selfishness on the part of those who don’t subscribe to its creed. Thus, to change one’s mind about Collectivism, one faces the added burden of changing one’s mind about selfishness—and the even heavier burden of convincing one’s social circle that one is not a bad person. The antidote to Collectivism is Individualism, but if you think you will become a bad person by changing your mind—or that your friends will think you are a bad person—will you change your mind?

Thus one can see how society can prevent progress by levying social costs on people whose opinions differ from what is favored in that society.

Are there groups in which individuals are free to criticize their own ideas? If what holds that group together is the philosophy that all ideas should be criticized, then that group would be one in which progress is possible.

What Can Be Done?

If you feel like you’re part of a social circle in which you can’t say certain things, introduce these few ideas:

1. The truth is not manifest (Popper). People can be mistaken about things. Everyone has different ideas and opinions. There is no grand conspiracy preventing your friend who thinks capitalism is good from seeing the “truth”; neither is he or she evil, uncaring, or cruel.

2. Ideas don’t define a person. Again, people are just mistaken about things—believing in something different doesn’t make a person good or evil. Your friend might be a Trump supporter for the most noble reason imaginable and not because he or she hates…who are Trump supporters supposed to hate, again? Saying “so-and-so’s are ghouls; stay away from them because they think so-and-so” is fanaticism.

3. Fallibilism. All of us are wrong about all sorts of things, so if you think someone else is wrong about something, don’t be a dick. You could be wrong, too. Instead, criticize their ideas with arguments.

Ultimately, if we want to foster progress, we must create an environment in which ideas can flourish, be freely criticized, and evolve. This requires recognizing that no one is infallible and that being wrong is not a moral failing. By detaching ideas from personal identity and moral judgment—by allowing ourselves and those around us to experiment with, criticize, and refine even the most cherished beliefs (especially these cherished beliefs)—we can move beyond social pressures that hinder intellectual growth. In doing so, we enable creativity, discovery and infinite progress.

Happy New Year!