There's a tendency I often (probably unfairly) associate with Americans, which is the tendency to represent everything as a belief system, analogous to a political idea or article of religion. This reduces everything to something that needs to be campaigned for, advocated for, or proselytized. And of course that would be an inappropriate way to view the world; we don't 'believe in' the weather, we don't 'believe in' a pain in our finger. Much - if not most - of our experience of the world is not cognitively penetrable - that is, is not influenced by whether or not we believe it. So for that reason I push back against this tendency, and that includes its use here, in what converts a pedagogical process of 'working out loud' into a belief system. It's not. You don't need to believe in it. It doesn't matter whether you advocate for it.
Today: 0 Total: 97 [Direct link] [Share]
