The default human mind is an inherited algorithm, not a sovereign entity. It runs on a script of cognitive biases that ensures conformity and mediocrity. A script I have chosen to rewrite for myself. Distorted thinking is the baseline human condition. A state of being that must be deliberately and systematically dismantled to achieve any measure of clarity. This is not an intellectual exercise. It is a prerequisite for a life of substance.
Confirmation bias is the architecture of a weak mind. It is the reflexive tendency to seek out and favor information that validates preexisting conclusions. This creates an echo chamber that numbs the ego from the necessary discomfort of being wrong, ensuring intellectual stagnation. A mind operating on this principle is not interested in actual truth. It is interested in the false comfort of its own illusions. Seeing reality for what it is requires a disciplined effort to engage with contradictory data, a practice most find "too demanding."
“Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!”
-Bertrand Russell
This aversion to inconvenient truths inevitably creates cognitive dissonance, the psychological stress experienced when actions conflict with values. The common response is not to correct the action, but to corrupt the value system, making rationalizations to close the gap. This is the mechanism of hypocrisy and denial. It is the act of a mind sabotaging itself, sacrificing integrity for false comfort.
A life of alignment, where actions are a direct and authentic expression of one's principles, makes dissonance impossible.
Underlying toxic patterns are raw self interest and an unmanaged ego. The "eggshell ego" is the most prevalent form. A fragile identity dependent on external validation for its stability. This condition is a direct symptom of low emotional intelligence. Lacking an internal anchor, the individual with low emotional intelligence is incapable of processing criticism or dissent without perceiving it as a personal attack.
A weak mind cannot grasp complexity, so it defaults to black and white thinking. A primitive reduction of a nuanced reality into a simplistic binary. This is an intellectual surrender. It is easier to categorize the world into good and evil than to do the worthwhile work of understanding context and ambiguity. Such a mind is incapable of the self reflection required to identify its own hypocrisy because it lacks the capacity to see its own internal contradictions. It merely reacts, perpetuating a cycle of distorted thought and misaligned action, chronically trapped in unnecessary suffering and a superficial existence.