In 1876, philosopher and mathematician William Clifford published The Ethics of Belief, in which he argued that a special kind of intellectual sin occurred when people formed beliefs based on insufficient evidence. “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence,” he said. Malformed beliefs did more than merit intellectual timeout; they often imperiled the lives of others affected by decisions based on those beliefs. Epistemologists in the 20th century would dissect “Clifford’s Principle” and, in many cases, find it to be an overstatement. But Clifford was onto something important related to personal responsibility and holding certain beliefs.
Fast forward to COVID-19, Donald Trump’s first election cycle, and the murder of George Floyd. In the wake of these events, a context emerged that was, frankly, quite hostile to responsible belief formation. People were forced to quickly develop views on a whole host of complicated issues stemming from critical race theory and the ethics of resistance to the justice of quarantines, the power dynamics of language and a theology of state authority. In many cases, failure to have views on these issues risked creating the appearance that one was either unintelligent or morally compromised (and perhaps both).
The result was scores of people (even very intelligent ones) holding beliefs that they had no business holding but felt pressured to hold anyway—they had violated Clifford’s Principle for the sake of belonging, self-image, and cultural combat. Asking questions, thinking slowly, and trying to “be nuanced” were simply not conducive to the pace of battle. Furthermore, staying up to date with the latest occurrences and breaking news never felt more necessary, and those refusing to drink from the firehose were simply left in the dust.
While that cultural moment is now behind us, the hostile context for belief formation that it created has endured. And while there are philosophical conversations to be had about belief formation, the weightier concerns are more practical: people who feel they must have justified beliefs about all “the issues” often end up exhausted, bewildered, and anxious from information overload, intellectual strain, and a sea of dissident voices. Let’s take each in turn.
Information Overload
Over the last ten years, news has seen a remarkable shift to social media platforms, which far outpace traditional news sources both in scope and speed. Some have embraced this change with sober-mindedness. For others, instant access to new information and the thrill of being on the cutting edge has become a kind of informational pornography that preys on their dopamine receptors. For others still, the sheer volume of what is ostensibly required to be informed has become a crushing burden. “Thrilling” or not, the thought that being informed requires being aware of the latest executive order, the latest tragedy, the latest international conflict, the latest march, the latest SCOTUS ruling, the latest church scandal and the latest research on Tylenol’s relationship to autism is a daunting one indeed.
Just how much news one should be processing is a matter of self-awareness and wisdom, but I suspect that the vast majority of people should be consuming less than they are. Sure, there will always be those with more time and more processing capacity, and for them, we can be thankful. But I believe most of us would benefit tremendously from pushing back against the information storm by allowing ourselves to be more ignorant about things that do not meaningfully affect us and that we have no ability to influence. The parts of our news consumption that amount to little more than a spectator sport need to either disappear or, in most cases, be reduced to footnotes where we are content to be only superficially aware.
We need to make “I don’t know” and “I wasn’t aware” extremely common parlance for the sake of our sanity and souls. For many, this will require getting off social media. For everyone, it will require answering the question, “Why do I feel like I need to have a solid grasp on X?” And for many (but certainly not all), that answer will be, “Because I want to be able to talk about what’s going on.” And that, in so many words, is the very problem. In the absence of omniscience and unlimited time, we will need to intentionally and wisely pick our areas of ignorance. We’ll be better off for it—qualified ignorance will pay far larger dividends than mere bliss.
Intellectual Strain
If information overload is about raw material, intellectual strain is about evaluating and analyzing the raw material—causes, solutions, moral status, and so on. While very few people would even begin to analyze a mathematical theorem or feel qualified to disagree with David McCullough about the life of John Adams, analysis of “the issues” is a free-for-all where everyone feels that their chance of “getting at the truth” is about as good as anyone else’s.
It isn’t.
Let’s be honest: most of us are simply not qualified to have firm views on complex and multi-layered social, political, philosophical and economic issues. And virtually no one is qualified to have confident views in all those areas. The fact that many people do so anyway, and that the answers aren’t “in the back of the book” to provide decisive refutation of those in error, creates the illusion that this is something we can do—and that we should be able to do if we aren’t stupid.
While information overload comes from without, the crisis of intellectual strain comes from within: we feel the drain on our mental energy required to process complex problems while simultaneously hoping that we have enough cognitive stock to do more than spin our wheels and pretend. We are existentially haunted by the fact that maybe certain things are just beyond our ability to reason about well. And we quietly entertain what that might mean for our intelligence, which we closely tie to our own sense of self-worth. We simply cannot afford to have anyone believe that we are less than intellectually talented. Average is failure.
It isn’t difficult to see where this leads: exhaustion, discouragement, and anxiety. Thankfully, the antidote is simple, despite being difficult. First, we must embrace humility in understanding the processing power we have relative to our backgrounds and natural intellectual abilities. Second, we need to know our strengths and stay in our lanes when it comes to being confident—narrow but deep is the way. Third, where pride and fear of man have resulted in us making intelligence a marker of self-worth and importance, we need to repent.
Dissident Voices
This is the simplest of the three. Listening to people bicker and passionately disagree—particularly when they are doing little more than broadcasting their own ignorance—is exhausting. Anyone who has listened to two children continuously argue will immediately resonate with the point. Social media calls us into a digital coliseum shouting over both the facts and their analysis. Unfortunately, there is no “filter” to silence opinions and just seek news when the news occurs in a feed alongside a host of “friends.” Often, these dissident voices will only contribute to our confusion and bewilderment, particularly when they are friends and family. We just want to be done with it all but realize that we “can’t afford” to have anything other than well-formed opinions on all the popular talking points. It’s all just exhausting.
Taking Action
Most fundamentally, we must resist the urge to hold beliefs that we have no business holding simply because we are expected to do so. Whether it comes from our workplaces, churches, families, schools, or social media, we must push back on the pressure to be impostors. Remember, more than intellectual honesty is at stake—failure here will leave us bewildered, anxious, and exhausted. Resistance will look different for each person. Some will need to close their social media accounts and get their news from subscription sources. Most people, I suspect, should read less news in general and come to terms with the many areas in which they can afford to have only superficial awareness. Others need to have a reality check about their analytical competence and be reminded that the desire to be perceived—and to perceive ourselves—as intellectually talented stems from pride and insecurity. Still others need to do their best to clean up their social media feeds and mute barking voices and bickering.
Bring back, “I didn’t hear that.” Bring back, “That sounds tough—my focus has been on other things.” Bring back, “I have no idea.” Bring back, “I’ve been too busy with life to keep up with that.” Bring back, “I don’t make a huge effort to be informed about that.” Bring back, “That’s over my head.” Bring back, “I heard X, but I'm not confident that's accurate.” If they were ever great, let’s make statements like these great again.
All of who we are will be better for it.
Excellent stuff here friend!