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Oct. 10, 2022 - Lionel Nation
12:28
Embracing the Heretic in You
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Every now and then, I have to explain to somebody what it is that I am.
What do I believe in?
How do you explain my philosophical belief system?
What is it?
How do you work it out?
Well, it's simple.
I'm a heretic.
And that bothers people because it sounds bad.
But it's not really.
It's exactly who I am.
And heretic, like I am, is basically somebody who follows heresy.
Now heresy, to be fair, let me read to you.
Heresy is a belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious, especially Christian doctrine.
That's not me.
I'm not talking about that at all.
Here is my way of thinking.
Opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.
That's it.
Let me make it very clear to you.
I would venture to say that anything that is crowdsourced, any opinion, and let's exclude medical science, For the most part.
I know where you're going with that.
But I mean, there are some things which are fundamentally agreed to that are correct.
There are some basic things.
But I don't even involve myself in that.
I'm not a contrarian to everything.
I don't dispute everything.
When it comes to politics, philosophy, the usual thought or opinion du jour, that is where I am profoundly opposed to that of conventional ideology, to that which is generally accepted.
If the majority of any group tends to agree with something or think that something is true, it's wrong.
It's wrong.
It's been watered down.
It's milquetoast, it's anodyne, it's saccharine, it's unimportant, it's unexciting, it's dull.
You know it, I know it, we all know it.
So I'm a heretic, and I have no problem with that.
But I don't start off being like that.
There's a word we use sometimes too, which I don't like, is that's skeptic.
And a skeptic is somebody who is a denier.
Now, I hate that word, denier, because you know denier is a very popular word, but a denier is somebody who deniers almost, the denier I'm talking about, is somebody who does it almost reflexively.
It's almost like a patella reflex.
Nope.
Wait a minute.
I don't do that.
I don't necessarily say that everything is wrong before I even hear it.
What I tend to do is to reject, after an initial consideration of that which is presented, I tend to reject what people say.
Because it's not true.
Or it's not good.
Or it's not well thought.
Or it's lazy.
Or it's sloppy.
Or it's this Pavlovian patellar obeisance to that which everybody believes.
That which is usual.
That which is understood.
That which is the generally accepted understanding regarding things.
If schools did a better job, if people did a better job, I think, in trying to cull and breed and harvest and collect people who think like me, the world would be a better place.
Because I'm telling you right now, let me give you an example.
I've been saying this for so long, it's...
Starting to, I mean, not boring me, but even I'm thinking to myself, I can't keep saying this, but I'm going to keep saying it.
I believe in the absolute value of critical thinking.
And critical thinking sounds kind of, well, it sounds highfalutin.
It sounds like, oh, critical thinking.
What it means is applying a particular way it means a structure of thinking as to issues and the like.
And it normally...
Follows what we used to call in law school the IRAC method.
Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion.
What's the issue?
What is the rule that is purportedly, allegedly applied to this?
Let me analyze the two.
Let me make some form of conclusion.
Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion.
Invariably.
If you follow that way of thinking, you will disagree with virtually everybody who opines.
Because, let's face it, when people...
And again, I'm not talking about how to build a building or how mold forms on bread.
Like I said, there are some scientific things which we pretty much agree.
I'm not talking about that.
But when it comes to political ideology, when it comes to applying a way of thinking, most people crowdsource and they look to see what is everybody thinking.
And they tend to think much like birds think or starlings think when they follow patterns of murmurations.
You've seen these birds that fly in these beautiful swarms.
They look like a...
Like a Rorschach test that flies.
And they fly perfectly.
You don't have one that flies off and loses direction.
They're like the most intricate marching band you've ever seen.
Because they follow each other.
And they follow each other and they collect for various reasons.
Some people think that maybe it's a means of...
Saving or preserving energy, you know, warmth, the energy of the group.
It's another way of perhaps making the group look larger to predators.
There are all kinds of reasons.
And the best reason is that some predators just like to follow others.
Well, humans do that too.
They really do that.
Humans love to be a part of the team, the tribe, the unit, the group.
The family, the class.
Remember that kings play chess on Friday, generally speaking, that wonderful mnemonic?
Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, you know, that kind of thing.
Well, we love to be in groups.
We love it.
We love to be in a group, and we love to meet other people in the group, and we love to say the things that other people in the group Like us to say.
We use shibboleths.
We use phrases.
We use expressions.
We use a nomenclature.
We use an argot or argo, depending upon where you're from, a lexicon.
That's what we do.
And when you put enough of those people together, you get a conventional way of thinking.
And a conventional opinion.
And the opinion of the group regarding something.
And that, by virtue of the fact that that has amassed, is wrong.
Don't follow it.
Because that's not the way critical thinking applies.
You don't do it by committee.
You do it by an exhaustive application of review.
You look at things little by little, bit by bit.
You ask yourself, does this make sense?
Let's test it again.
Let's dispute this.
Wait a minute.
There's something wrong here.
Do we really have a valid opinion, a valid outlook?
Do we really?
Are we at that point?
Are we?
And that's critical.
That's not the way people think.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
We have opinions that are collectively sourced.
And we love phrases.
You have your phrases.
I have mine.
And every group, every group, every iteration of humanity, every religion, every political aspect, they all follow the same rules with their same language.
And their same nomenclature.
So remember, if you are finding yourself in agreement with the majority of a particular unit or population, for the most part, again, not, not, not, I've said this enough, but I'm talking about new ideas regarding politics and philosophy, you are wrong.
Because remember, to be, to be a heretic, To oppose ideas which are generally thought of, generally agreed to, generally approved of by the group is something that makes you special.
And let me tell you something.
Take it from me.
When you buck the system, when you go rogue, when you say no, no, I don't believe that.
No, I don't, I don't, I'm not following that.
No, I don't think that's true.
No, I don't think your level of proof has been adduced correctly.
No, I'm not buying that theory.
It will call you every conceivable name you can imagine.
Not because you're wrong, necessarily.
And you might be wrong.
There's always that possibility.
But because you dare to go against the team, the tribe, the pack, the group, the family, the order.
You dare to do that.
And they don't like that.
You're a troublemaker.
And they will mock you and chide you and call you everything you can imagine up to and including your suggesting or questioning your sanity.
So be a heretic.
Embrace the heretic in you.
Heresy.
Give it a shot.
It's one of those words.
It's one of those things.
Like the word epitome or epitome as my friend once called it.
Epitome sounds like, oh, it's great.
You're the epitome.
You're the epitome of musicianship.
You're the epitome of singers.
It means the most average, the most representative.
You mean the quintessence.
That's what you're trying to say.
But that's not the way we speak.
We speak in a more pedestrian way.
So heresy.
Heresy's cool.
Heresy's in.
Embrace the heretic in you.
And if you would be so kind and be so wise and be so great.
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