Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Your Life is Like Fox News: Reality Distortion Fields & Why Self-Deception is Inevitable

Your Life is Like Fox News: Reality Distortion Fields & Why Self-Deception is Inevitable

Last updated on: August 26, 2014 at 8:43 am by Tim Suttle

Your Life is Like Fox News: Reality Distortion Fields & Why Self-Deception is Inevitable 2014-08-26T08:43:38-06:00 Tim Suttle

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“I’m a great believer in self-deception. If you asked me what makes the world go round, I would say self-deception. Self deception allows us to create a consistent narrative for ourselves that we actually believe. I’m not saying that the truth doesn’t matter. It does. But self-deception is how we survive” Errol Morris, documentary filmmaker, The Fog of War, Tabloid.

I would much rather listen to somebody who is trying to figure out what they think, than somebody who already knows what they think. I’d rather eaves drop on someone who is making up their mind, than somebody whose mind is already made up. It’s why I can’t watch to Fox News. In the first chapter of his book Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman plays around with why this might be.

He starts by asking a simple question: Do you really know what you think? If the mind exists somewhere inside my own body, then shouldn’t I have better access to my own mind than anyone else does? Shouldn’t I be able to question my own mind, and get more honest answers from myself than any other questioner? The answer may not be as simple as you think.

We are all constantly attempting to construct our own identity. The question in the back of our minds is constantly “Who am I?” It’s an existential constant.

One of the ways we construct identity is by talking about our lives. We tell stories, share opinions, and talk about our lives. Say you are at lunch with your colleagues. When you each share snapshots of your own lives, you do this in part to build self-identity. When you tell a story about your home life, you are saying “This is part of who I am–part of how I see myself.” When you talk about the world and give your opinion, you do this in part to to build your own reality. When you talk about todays news, you are saying, “This is what I think reality is like.”

What’s fascinating about this sharing, in Klosterman’s opinion, is that as we do this we constantly edit. We don’t tell everything about our lives. We just tell the parts we want each other to know. The way I share an opinion about a political event with an extremely conservative friend, might be very different from what I would say to a liberal feminist. Klosterman says we do this not primarily for others, but for ourselves. Like the stars of our own reality show, we are constantly attempting to project our own identity out into the world.

Hence we are not very accurate in the way we tell stories about our lives, and about the world. We constantly edit what we think about our own stories, and the things we see happening in the world. Nothing we say is objective, because we are not neutral observers of our lives. We are players. We have a point of view, and it is not unbiased. So we are saddled with unavoidable subjectivity. We have perspective, our perspective. And it is inescapable. We are walking reality distortion fields bumping into one another.

The reason we are constantly editing our lives is that we have a deep need to feel consistent. We need to feel as though our lives are conforming to a coherent narrative. So we will do everything we can to shape our perception of actual events to fit that narrative, including edit our own perception of reality. We edit the way we talk about ourselves. We edit our account of “what really happened” when we had that conversation with our boss. We edit the details of a news event to conform to our opinion about it. We edit the words that come out of our spouses mouth in the middle of an argument.

We are constantly editing our perception of reality so that it will match our preconceived narrative about who we are as persons. In that way, we are all exactly like Fox News. We have an agenda. And that agenda colors everything about our perception of reality and the way we engage the world.

This is why I’m instinctively averse to people who think they are always right. I’m instantly skeptical of someone who purports to always know exactly what they think. I’m talking about myself here as well. The more certain I hear myself sounding, the more skeptical I am of my own opinion.

Only a person who is deeply self-deceived would claim to always be right, and always know the truth about what’s happening in their world. This does not mean I think truth doesn’t matter. In fact, I think the truth is of ultimate importance. I just don’t trust my ability (or yours), to sum it up accurately. Nobody can be right about everything all the time. So we should probably be a little more humble about everything.

This is why I would rather talk with somebody who is still deciding what they think yet about any given issue, than with somebody who is absolutely convinced they are right. The former is more honest and real. The latter is a projection of personal identity.

Morris again, as quoted by Klosterman,

“I don’t feel like I know myself, let alone the people I interview. I might actually know the people I interview better than I know myself. A friend of mine once said that you can never trust a person who doesn’t talk much, because how else do you know what you are thinking? Just by the act of being willing to talk about oneself, the person is revealing something about who they are.”

So, when I talk about my life, I’m not revealing who I am so much as I’m revealing who I want you to think I am. And your reaction will be slanted–edited to fit with your own version of reality. In other words, your reaction will not be based solely on reality either. It will be based on what you need reality to be in order to feel consistent about your own personal narrative.

Reality is reality. But our perceptions of reality are all very dynamic and fluid.

This is why it is interesting to listen people who are still trying to make up their minds, and boring to listen to someone who thinks they are right. I’m not even convinced they really know what they think, because what they think about what they think is necessarily a distortion.

Perhaps this is also why I’m drawn to mystery, and wonder, and awe. I don’t want to get rid of the category of truth, I just want it to be an open ended conversation. I’m a Christian, so ultimately I think Jesus is the truth, and this truth is the unavoidable reality into which we will all eventually bump. But my ability to describe this reality is fraught with self-deception. So the conversation must keep going. Only then can we all spiral closer and closer to that which is really real. The moment we freeze, solidify, harden, and close off, we lock ourselves inside our own unreality. That is, by the way, the very definition of what we call hell.

Previous Post

August 25, 2014

Monday Morning Confessional: The Internet Sidebar List

Next Post

August 27, 2014 SHIFT: from loneliness to solitude

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion corruption Donald Trump elections Empire Entertainment Ezra Klein ideology Justice Lacan politics race Sports Ta-Nehisi Coates Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 March 2026 September 2025 March 2025 June 2024 January 2024 December 2023 May 2023 February 2023 October 2022 April 2022 March 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 September 2020 July 2020 June 2020 March 2020 September 2019 July 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 August 2010 July 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What animals attacked and killed Job's servants, according to the messengers?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Sabeans and Chaldeans Ammonites and Edomites Syrians and Egyptians Philistines and Moabites