Seeking Truth

Truth is a living process playing out in each human mind/brain. That is, your truth is the sum of your own knowledge and experiences. One person's “truth” can be regarded as just another perspective in others' eyes. Absolute truths are difficult to define, especially in the social aspects of human interactions. This chapter provides a foundational understanding of truth as a changing target relative to self. The role of the Mediasphere is explored in terms of its influence on creating a collective societal reality, a collective consciousness. Specific attention is given to the importance of symbolic interactionism – consistent with the knowledge capacity explored in terms of neuroscience findings on how memories are stored in the mind/brain. To better understand what is happening in today's environment, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and brainwashing are explored in terms of their relationship with truth, and the attack on the American mind is addressed. An addendum includes three tools for breaking the pattern of untruths: truth searching, rhythm disruptor, and humility.

7. The opening of the American mind

‘The opening of the American mind’ challenges the perception of postwar American intellectual life as a period of staid traditionalism, stifling uniformity, complacency, and consensus. While some aspects of the 1950s and early 1960s Cold War culture were intellectually suffocating, others helped to widen Americans’ intellectual horizons. America’s new status as a global superpower stimulated the development of its intellectual and cultural institutions at a pace unprecedented in its history. The dramatic expansion of higher education, think tanks, and the print culture marketplace contributed to the opening of mid-century American thought. Varieties of existentialism, the creation of a lively conservative tradition, and the growing American interest in intellectual movements and spiritual practices from around the world helped Americans “breathe a larger air.”

Sự dữ dội của chủ nghĩa an toàn và hệ lụy

This paper illustrates our view about the book “The coddling of the American mind” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff.

Correlates of “Coddling”: Cognitive Distortions, Believing Words Can Harm, and Intuitive Thinking Predict Safetyism Beliefs

In their book, The Coddling of the American Mind, Lukianoff and Haidt (2018) contend that the rise of “safetyism” – cultures that treat safety as a sacred value – is hindering college students’ socioemotional development. One of their most controversial claims was that college students’ safetyism beliefs are rooted in and supported by cognitively distorted thinking (e.g., emotional reasoning). However, no empirical work has substantiated an association between cognitive distortions and safetyism beliefs. In a large (N = 786), ethnically and economically diverse sample of college students, we conducted the first examination of the relationship between these variables. Aligning with Lukianoff and Haidt’s assertions, we found that students’ self-reported prevalence of cognitive distortions positively predicted their endorsement of safetyism beliefs, even when controlling for other relevant demographic and psychological predictors. The belief that words can harm and intuitive thinking were also robust, positive predictors of safetyism beliefs. Considering our results, we argue that greater empirical scrutiny of safetyism-inspired practices (e.g., broad use of trigger warnings) is warranted before such customs become more widely adopted.