I think this is the saddest part of the human brain; it tends to hold on to what it wants to believe rather than seeing the truth.
Because truth is tiring.
It forces people to change.
But the human mind often wants to be right, not to change.
There is a system that works deep inside the brain. The Reticular Activation System. RAS for short. It decides which of the millions of details in life we will notice. It's like an invisible filter.
But here's the thing.
One begins to live without realizing this filter.
If he is mired in fear, he sees threats everywhere.
When he is in a rage, everyone feels like an enemy.
If they are blindly attached to a leader, they can deny even the most obvious truth.
Because the brain is trying to protect what one believes in.
Not the truth.
This is why two people looking at the same event can see completely different things.
What one calls “justice” the other calls “betrayal”.
What one calls “freedom” the other calls “danger”.
And man often does not realize the game his own mind is playing on him.
Here's what's worse.
One thinks most of all with one's wounds.
Someone who was humiliated as a child can even years later mistake a minor criticism as an attack.
Someone who is constantly made to feel worthless breaks down at the slightest rejection.
Societies raised in fear begin to seek refuge with anyone who seems powerful.
Because the mind is not only shaped by knowledge.
It is also shaped by pain.
Maybe that's why it's so hard to think objectively.
Because man does not think only with his mind.
He thinks about his resentments, his fears, his ego, his past.
In the age of social media, this system works even more ferociously.
Algorithms now feed the human RAS system.
They show whatever you are angry about.
Whatever you are afraid of, they magnify it.
Whoever you are angry at, they put them in front of you all the time.
And after a while one starts to believe that the world is really that dark.
But maybe he is just wandering in the darkness of his own mind.
Healthy thinking is not about saying big words.
Sometimes it's just to stop and ask yourself the question
“What if I'm wrong?”
This is where maturity starts a little bit.
Because fanaticism does not only exist in politics.
Sometimes one becomes a fanatic of one's own pain.
A fanatic of his own anger, his own story, his own victimization...
And that is when one loses the truth the most.
I have seen many people in life.
People who read a lot but can't think...
People who talk a lot but never hear...
People who are always trying to be right but never once look at themselves from the outside...
I think this is where wisdom starts a little bit.
In learning to doubt one's own mind before trusting it.
Because the human brain can sometimes become the biggest curtain that hides the truth.