If one is in no position to act on a delusional belief, then optimal behavior is to believe in the delusional but socially desirable belief with full sincerity. But unless one is aware of reality, one cannot reliably judge which delusion is safe. For example, one of my politically correct Australian nieces assumed it would be safe to walk down a street named Martin Luther King Boulevard. My seemingly equally politically correct American niece would be unlikely to do so.
While the example is basically correct, I fear it might kill more minds than enlighten then.
By doing this you basically force breach a compartment in someone’s mind. While of course a well intentioned person might hope this would motivate them to fix the leak and clear the water out of the flooded compartment, it might however just help sink the ship a little bit more, by making another part of their cognitive tool kit “dangerous” to use.
Browsing through your comment history, there are some comments I disagree with and some I agree with, and certainly the same would be true for you if you looked at my commenting style. I really don’t wish to brag, since my style is far from perfect, but perhaps dare I say my approach may be slightly more productive? Though naturally if no commenter’s with your style ever appeared I may find myself under overwhelming scrutiny and need to be quieter on some of my contrarian stances.
Um, you might want to change that to Martin Luther King boulevard. It took me a minute to realize you weren’t talking about an anti-semitic early Protestant.
If one is in no position to act on a delusional belief, then optimal behavior is to believe in the delusional but socially desirable belief with full sincerity. But unless one is aware of reality, one cannot reliably judge which delusion is safe. For example, one of my politically correct Australian nieces assumed it would be safe to walk down a street named Martin Luther King Boulevard. My seemingly equally politically correct American niece would be unlikely to do so.
While the example is basically correct, I fear it might kill more minds than enlighten then.
By doing this you basically force breach a compartment in someone’s mind. While of course a well intentioned person might hope this would motivate them to fix the leak and clear the water out of the flooded compartment, it might however just help sink the ship a little bit more, by making another part of their cognitive tool kit “dangerous” to use.
Browsing through your comment history, there are some comments I disagree with and some I agree with, and certainly the same would be true for you if you looked at my commenting style. I really don’t wish to brag, since my style is far from perfect, but perhaps dare I say my approach may be slightly more productive? Though naturally if no commenter’s with your style ever appeared I may find myself under overwhelming scrutiny and need to be quieter on some of my contrarian stances.
Um, you might want to change that to Martin Luther King boulevard. It took me a minute to realize you weren’t talking about an anti-semitic early Protestant.