I asked my colleagues the other day whether they spend time thinking about why people around them do what they do or say what they do. Most of them said no, and some looked confused at the idea. We are all primed to react rather than examine, consider, edit. This is one of the many harms that social media has leveraged society to make true; the more reactionary everyone is, and the fewer questions we ask, the more profit they gather.
Surely an idea is worth a second of consideration, no matter who it came from. The fact that most people overtly disagree with this statement is proof that we have moved far from our ancestors’ innate curiosity and exploration – we’d rather offer a cheer or a derision and feel safe on “our side”.
The worst of this is that we are all on the same side, whether we like it or not, or realize it or not, or admit it or not. We are all on the same earth, suffering the same consequences of our relentless drive for profit above all else. It should be no surprise that companies don’t want you to think about why a decision is made or why they’re lobbying Congress or the FDA and then running an ad about how trustworthy they are.
More to come.