Echo chamber
January 8th, 2023
How does it feel to be so sure? How does it feel to be 100% certain? Not to have any doubts about the rightness of ideas and beliefs and thoughts and actions? Not to have any questions about going on the correct path? And denying any possibility that any other way of thinking (or simply being) might be equally right or valid or even acceptable?
Why does having doubts seem like a lacking fundamentality of being and thinking and is so unsettling?
We all live in echo chambers, some of them of our own making, some we were born in, some we just fell in more or less by accident, and some we actively searched for to get safety and comfort of familiarity. Ideas and thoughts we hold as our own, bouncing constantly off the same ideas and thoughts only get stronger and more concrete and stale and we grow surer of them to the point of complete fundamentalism. There is nothing to challenge them or refine them or any room for new ones. In reality — anything new and unlike what we already believe is dismissed as worthless and pointless at best, but most of the time is attacked as anathema and heresy. There is no possibility of challenge or assimilation or acceptance of anything new and possibly uncomfortable in an echo chamber.
That goes to all aspects of our lives. We by default surround ourselves with people and ideas that are familiar and will shelter us from the unpleasant bother of novelty and strangeness of the other. And any attempt that dares to present something different is seen as a direct attack on fundamental values and ideas and not as an opportunity to grow and expand the views of the world and society. This is mostly connected to social, political, religious, and cultural ideas and views — once they are set and reinforced by the sameness of an echo chamber — there is virtually no possibility of changing them.
And am I guilty of it myself? I think about myself that I have an open mind but having an open mind doesn't necessarily mean understanding and acceptance (or tolerance) of different ideas. Some values and morals I hold as ABSOLUTE — without any possibility to challenge them or change them. But more and more I notice that I use my absolutism of thought even toward rather insignificant ideas. I think my problem is that my echo chamber has only me inside. My thought and ideas do not bounce off others, they are just there. There is plenty of room for new ones and I am not afraid of a challenge — all I need is the courage to make the first step to respectfully admit that I might be wrong about something.
