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According to Orson Scott Card, “This is how humans are. we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question.” Wonder if this is true
If so, there are things you believe just because you believe it and others that you believe simply because you’ve never given any thought to not believing.
Add this to Felix Cohen’s observation, “Generally the theories we believe we call facts, and the facts we disbelieve we call theories,” and you are left with a discouraging conclusion. Most of what you think is true and factual, most of what you really believe, is little more than one more theory, just another personal opinion.
There is an important glitch here. Most everyone else also chooses belief over non-belief, subscribes to one more theory, another personal opinion. That then becomes their belief, the principle according to which they live. Of course, since you really believe, you are right and they are wrong. The way you choose to live is good and right, and the way they choose to live is wrong and unjust.
Here is a suggestion that might lessen the tendency to discount everyone else’s perspective. Pick one principle you use to govern your life. Assume you are wrong, that this cherished principle is invalid. How would that change your world, your perception of you and your actions?
While you are contemplating this alternative reality, keep in mind most of the people in the world are certain that your valued principle, your most cherished belief is wrong.
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“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.” Christopher Morley’s point is certainly worth pondering, for as the famous Anon. observed, “It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century. It is as Iris Murdoch argued, “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” (Elizabeth West)
Should you doubt, consider this from Bill Strickland, “The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created. Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.” If that isn’t reason enough to recommend the bicycle, President Kennedy said, “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” Yes, “Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.” H.G. Wells said, and Grant Petersen added, “Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.” Ah, yes, and the lowly bicycle is, to the surprise of many, the world’s first hybrid vehicle, easily powered by only Big Macs and you.