There is no truth without the spine
Only the strong can bear the weight of truth
This is because truth stands alone
Therefore whoever bears it stands alone himself
And to be alone requires the greatest strength
To be alone requires the greatest strength — because it’s difficult to survive alone
It’s easier to survive in the crowd
It would be difficult to defeat the crowd, survive the crowd
(evolutionarily you’re very well aware of that — as the genes that lead you away from your tribe are the genes which die, being eaten by some tiger in the jungle)
Therefore it’s difficult to go against the crowd
Therefore to be alone requires the greatest strength
It’s easier to live how others want you to live
It’s easier to believe what others believe
The consequences of living otherwise and believing otherwise would be too dangerous, would require too much strength, which you don’t have
Why does The Truth stand alone?
Let’s dispense with grandiosity for a moment and let me give you an example:
Imagine explaining basic physics or math concept to a 3 year old.
Well, the gap between familiarity and unfamiliarity is similarly large. Likely anyone knows something that an average person would have difficult time immediately understanding
And same goes for TRUTH — the more TRUTHS you unravel — the more those truths separate you from men that never had such discoveries
You and your truths become as unfamiliar to them as quantum physics to a 3 year old.
And then you stand alone
And if you know any truths of life — then you most definitely stand alone — because the world is mad, the world is fucking nuts
Mind you — you may think you’re denying the world, you may think you’re “going against the grain” — but that is not true.
Most likely your contrarianism is actually conformism. What that means is that it conforms with your “contrarian” group. E.g. think musical subcultures, online movements, etc.
This particular phenomenon is extremely prevalent today, when any idiot can find his crowd on the internet. In truth he’s only switching from one large group to another, a little less large — but still a group, still a tribe — and still memetically authoritative
Secondly — all this false individuality is nothing if it’s not matched with actions. Anyone can be “edgy” when he’s risking nothing. Put your money where your mouth is.
Indeed ACTION is the only solution
Only action can fortify you and prepare for the weight of the Truth
And only action leads to the truth:
—experimentation and observation (empiricism, positivism, scientfic method) lead to scientific truths
—LIVING ONE’S LIFE TO THE FULLEST leads to TRUTH OF LIFE (though not in some stupid hedonistic sense or ambitious)
Please understand the meaning of this
You think you can LEARN THE TRUTH before you’ll act
“Truth” separated from action is not only vanity and delusion — it’s a perversion.
But even if you could somehow get hold of it — you would STILL not be able to bear it.
You’ve no spine for it. You would crumble under it’s weight and die.
Therefore the only thing you can do is ACT
There is no shortcut
You must make your own mistakes
Make your own mistakes and let them make you STRONGER
And what you learn in that process — you may even retain
You may be strong enough to retain it, to keep it
Start small
Everything starts small. You are very small when you come into this world.
-Start small
-Learn your lessons
-DO accelerate the process by learning from the outside
-But 99% of your leaning must be applicable. You can devote the remaining 1% to philosophy and chess and other amusements
-DO learn your lessons. If only we were actually learning from our mistakes…
-Apply immediately, AS you’re learning — then succeed and move on to higher level problems
and here’s the interesting part,
-As you move forward, you will encounter HIGHER LEVEL TRUTHS — understand that LIKELY you won’t have enough STRENGTH to bear them,
Small-step your way there.
If you can’t face the truth entirely, in entirety of it’s consequences and glory — then find a way to accustom yourself to it gradually.
NOW, it’s KEY that you don’t REJECT that truth subconsciously,
Your entire subconscious will be desperate to retain the status quo, retain the safety of your tribe, retain the consistency of it’s weltanschauung…
But you must be aware of the entire process, be aware of your WEAK spine… then find ways to gradually LIVE that truth,
And again — LIVING is the key part here,
LIVING is that ever-necessary ingredient of ACTION,
LIVING, ACTION — is what bring about that new reality,
Your intellectual understanding doesn’t matter — you must LIVE that truth,
And since truth is so overwhelming — only action can overcome it
GRADUAL action
*
To hammer it home with some (prosaic) examples:
—if you know something is wrong — correct it gradually.
Change it in 10%. You don’t have to change it 100% immediately. What is key is that you BRING TO LIFE that change, in a non-zero way. 1% the first day. 1% the next day…
—if you think the mass is wrong — do something different once in a while.
You don’t have to do everything different yet. Make a single contrarian bet. Do one thing your way, for a change. Etc.
—If you think you shouldn’t be doing something — limit it gradually. See how that works out
—If you think you might be right with something — BET on it.
You don’t have to bet everything. Bet 100$. Bet 1h a week. Make the smallest step.
—If you think someone is wrong — correct them once.
You don’t have to immediately resist them! You can do it gradually.
—If you think certain idea is right — apply it.
You don’t have to change your entire life yet. SIMPLY see how it works out for you. Include it in your observations and tests. SIMPLY withhold your natural arrogant urge to conclude prematurely. SIMPLY take that small step of testing it a few times, in the following weeks.
It’s simple and prosaic, isn’t it?
But this is not what usually happens,
What happens is our subconscious kicks in and kicks us back to submission and status quo.
One who is tremendously strong will not be so easily swayed.
But the rest of us will have to step aside — see ourselves as weak — then employ GRADUAL METHODS of CHANGING OURSELVES, and EXPOSING OURSELVES TO TRUTH — through LIVING AND BREATHING AND ACTING.
The key part is that it progressively does lead to the truth. That though this process is slow — it is STEADY.
…
But yes. Truth is hard to bear
You will have to become strong,
It will be gradual — like all growing
At times there will be leaps. You may fall down. Truth may overwhelm you.
Understand it happening.
Find a workaround. Longer way but steadier.