Everyone you know is an idiot
You just don’t know it yet
Everyone you know believes something that, if you knew they believed it — you would have thought they were idiots
If not that then
Everyone you know, if put in a new situation, with new problem to solve, REAL new problem to solve,
and no crutch to fall back on, no “friends”, no social media, no one telling you what to think,
would reveal themselves to be idiots
And of course you yourself are to blame too
Because you yourself are an idiot
So when you’re wrong and others tell you that you’re wrong — you think they are idiots
Because between the two of you — surely you’re the one who must be right
We could also extrapolate it to morality
Everyone you know is EVIL
They believe something evil
Would do something evil
And DEFINITELY if put to TEST — would reveal themselves to be evil
What is the conclusion?
Conclusion is NOT that TRUTH doesn’t exist, or that MORALITY doesn’t exist
Or that it’s all RELATIVE
The conclusion is that:
We DON’T KNOW when we’re WRONG
And we don’t know when others are wrong
And they don’t know when we are wrong
You can’t tell which of your believes are wrong
obviously
If you could — you would have rectified them, and they wouldn’t be wrong no more
NOR can you tell where others are wrong — not before you:
-know all their beliefs
-and know what is right and wrong in regards to those beliefs
Already first condition makes it impossible, even if you otherwise knew the truth of the universe
This is NOT to say that there won’t be a greater degree of SHARED OPINIONS AND VALUES between you and your friend, than between you and someone else
But your friend is an idiot too
You just don’t know it yet
He hasn’t reveal it to you yet
I’m writing this because it can be very confusing
You can be certain about some abstract system of axioms (e.g. mathematics),
You can be very confident about something you observed and tested empirically time and time again,
But to operate in this world — you’re left with so many problems where it’s NOT CLEAR what the answer is
So OBVIOUSLY it helps if some people share your intuition on some complicated, uncertain matter
And so obviously you seek kinship and rapport
You seek authority, who earn your trust on the account of something you agree on (even if you can only agree about them having proven their expertise) — so that you can now trust them when you’re less than certain yourself
And so of course you’re susceptible to overestimating the degree to which your believes are shared. Since that’s what you’re focusing on
And you are bound for a disappointment
You are bound for disappointment
But it would be a mistake to disregard, erase those poor fallible humans altogether
And likewise it would be a mistake to cut off the entire world, all authorities, and perhaps all humans,
First repeats the mistake of seeking someone whose “not an idiot”, someone who will never disappoint you, because you share all the values and agree on everything,
Second doesn’t even attempt at finding anyone to share values with, and instead collapses onto itself, onto a solipsistic hubris and arrogance, belief that only YOU KNOW the truth
It would be simpler to just realise that everyone you know is an idiot
And a wicked man
And then focus on VALUES alone
On WHERE you can agree
OR WHERE you can build something together
And not overthink it
And be ready to be disappointed
Perhaps lessen your expectations
And of course to realise that you are just like them
They thought you were so smart and so alike them — and yet you’re just a fallible human, just another asshole who thinks he knows it all
You will disappoint them once you revealed that you don’t actually have the answers
Focus on what you can build together
Focus on what you share
Focus on what you love
Focus on where you can learn from one another
DO make it clear what you can do together,
And what you CAN’T
Because there will be time and space for both:
time to be together, work together, build together, learn together, fuck together
and time to go one’s way