Consider following situation

You are playing chess

Both of you apply a set of principles, to find the best move

Both of you essentially apply the same set of principles, e.g. you read the same books, practiced the same concepts, etc.

There’s NO DISAGREEMENT there,

But

One of you decides that Bxf7+ is the best move

You decide it’s Ka1

 

Now consider those two moves realise completely different purpose, are parts of completely different plans,

We could say thus that those moves are CONFLICTING

Now,

let’s say one of those moves is OBJECTIVELY better,

But how come?

Didn’t BOTH OF YOU apply the same PRINCIPLES?

Shouldn’t you converge at the same move?

 

Well of course not necessarily

Because one of you may simply be a better player,

Simply more adept at analysing the position, and applying all the vast chess wisdom, all the principles — to arrive at the MOST OPTIMAL SOLUTION

Perhaps both moves are quite strong

But one is just OK

Other is GRANDMASTER-level

And guess what — grandmaster eventually wins the game

 

What’s my point? What’s the lesson?

 

In COMPLEX matters,

EVEN WHEN YOU’RE APPLYING THE SAME PRINCIPLES, RULES

you can still come to DIFFERENT CONCLUSIONS,

And conclusions can be outright AT ODDS with one another

Doesn’t mean the other person is an idiot

NOR does it mean that one course of action isn’t MUCH BETTER than the other,

And OBJECTIVELY

 

You see?

Just because you know the PRINCIPLES — doesn’t mean you’ll come to the RIGHT CONCLUSION… let alone BEST CONCLUSION

And just because you DON’T UNDERSTAND how that other person arrived at that conclusion, ESPECIALLY since both of you applied the same rules — DOESN’T MEAN that other conclusion is not the correct one, superior one

Argument from incredulity, right? Just because you don’t believe it or can’t imagine it being true — doesn’t mean it’s wrong

 

Now good thing about chess is that the grandmaster will mop the fucking floor with lesser-titled players

Both are chess experts

But one just applies the principles better

And it is revealed in an objective way,

 

Now the SAME thing happens in this world

It’s NOT just a matter of knowing the principles, knowing the “secret”, or even merely practising more, or “having seen more”,

One person will simply be more astute, more intelligent, more creative, more talented — and make BETTER JUDGEMENTS

 

HOWEVER,

In this real world, outside of dumb board game — it no longer is SO OBVIOUS who was ultimately right

Whose better outcomes are result of their better skill, better insight, better intelligence,

And whose better outcomes are just result of luck

 

FURTHERMORE,

EVEN WHEN WE DO KNOW that one person is, indeed, the superior expert,

Is a physicist, a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, a billionaire investor with long track record…

Even then we doubt them

How preposterous is that?

It’s like you lost 100 games in a row to a fucking grandmaster,

And then you still squabble with him about which move is better, EXPLAINING to him why your move is SUPERIOR, why YOU’RE RIGHT, and HERE’S THE PROOF, here’s the “PRINCIPLE”

 

Now,

I you don’t want to be a loser, then STFU and learn from your superiors.

If you DENY what SUPERIORITY is — OF COURSE you’ll get mediocrity.

Just don’t be surprised,

because someone told you it’s virtuous to champion mediocrity, it’s being “egalitarian”, or maybe “siding with the oppressed”,

or maybe because it’s being a “true rebel”, or “not part of the MAINSTREAM PROPAGANDA”, or “seeing through delusions”, or being “sceptical”

 

And

If we don’t want this society to collapse,

I am not being dramatic,

If we don’t want this society to collapse — we WILL have to start AGREEING on something

And deferring to SOME fucking authority

There ARE grandmasters out there. Not everyone of them is always right about their subject, and DEFINITELY few of them are ever right OUTSIDE their subject,

But there are experts out there

That’s why planes fly, phones ring, skyscrapers shoot into the sky, and messages fly over your favourite dumbest antisocial media platform

It’s also why we haven’t yet relapsed into violence and dictatorship: violent and and envious and greedy as we are

But we will

If we continue disagreeing about everything, about most obvious truths and lies — then eventually there will be no one to fly the plane, or restrain the nukes

Because you’ll have the INFLUENCER, the CELEBRITY, having IDEAS how to BETTER fly the plane, and what BETTER USE to make of nukes

He’ll elect another celebrity, and that’s the end of it