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On pathological ideas vs. truth
Pathological ideas are ideas that lead to misery. They are like cancer in the sense that all they end up causing is pain to the bearer, and quite possibly death.
In my many years alive (30 so far), I've often caught myself asking the question: "why are you so pushy and so insistent about finding truth?". In the past, I thought I was missing something that caused me pain, and finding truth was a way to supplement that empty space in my "soul".
Now, after having read the following excerpt, it all becomes clear: My search for truth is my search for bliss and my escape from my own pains. The logical inconsistencies that my old political and religious beliefs produced on me, the pains of the false beliefs I held about family, the disappointments caused by my beliefs about personal relationships. I must find the truth to find happiness in all those spheres, and before I do that, I must strip naked of the old beliefs, for one cannot dress comfortably new clothes and at the same time wear the old ones. And it's a hard, lonely exercise; the alcoholics of pathological ideas fear the truth, and thus will do anything in their power to keep you drinking from the bottle of lies again. Which is why sometimes, the exercise of finding truth demands that the person looking for it, cut poisonous personal relationships out of his life.
The inevitable conclusion is this: one cannot be in the state of happiness when one entertains or is an apologist for pathological, false beliefs. Our beliefs inevitably inform our actions. When one is not with truth, when one believes false, pathological ideas, when one entertains interpersonal relationships based on lies and appearances, one will eventually fall in total, utter misery.
In the end, my quest and drive turns out not to be about being right at all -- it's simply about being happy.
Without much ado, the excerpt of The Social Pathologist that led me to discover this simple personal truth:
Now in these early years of the 21st century, with religion and tradition effectively quashed, men and women are free to live in whichever way they please. Any idiot theory can have its way, protected by the modern western philosophy of radical liberalism and the welfare state. The supporting edifice of this laboratory is the theory of liberalism. No man, prince, sage or church should compel a man to do or think anything. As the captain of his destiny and the master of his soul, each man his own moral philosopher, the choices and actions of his life his own. This glorious vision was to liberate man from misery imposed from above to the beatific vision of unlimited freedom and hence happiness.
Unfortunately it hasn't worked out that way. The man is the street is no more able to choose a path to happiness than he able to fix his own television. In my consulting room I deal daily with the consequences of applied philosophic theory. Depression and lifestyle illnesses are endemic and I ask why? In the U.S, supposedly the richest country on earth why are 30% of people going to take anti depressants at some stage in their life? Why is it when people can choose whom they want to marry, at least 50% end in divorce? Divorce was meant to liberate women but how come so many of them are miserable? Why is contraception so freely available and the abortion rate so high? Ever met a happy feminist?
The answer, stupid philosophy or more importantly pathological ideas. By pathological ideas I mean ideas which followed to their conclusion lead to misery. Their misery leads to depression and their depression leads to me. Some men suffer depression from external causes, Death, tragedy or illness but a greater portion of men suffer because they live their life stupidly. They have a pathological weltschauung. It's my job to fix it if I can. However some ideas are so malign that there effect is similar to cancer on the body, slowly spreading to every healthy thought. Strong medicine is needed.
Time to call the Social Pathologist.