Truth Without An Advertising Budget
Being left out hurts just as much as losing money
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The need to order and organize our society comes before the need for truth. To think otherwise is to fall for a delusion – a delusion so common that like air, it fuels us without paying attention to it.
Everything else serves this organisation agenda. Disorder, disagreement, and lack of cohesion trouble our souls as well as society, so much that we do a lot to organize ourselves as much as possible. We organise ourselves into communities and tribes around commonalities because of this problem. True to this fact, we punish people who threaten the group’s cohesion more than we punish dishonesty; except when the dishonesty itself is the threat and in such a case it is double the penalty. Because we rank sowing discord as a greater offence than dishonesty, truth-tellers face a harsher penalty than benign liars. This point – penalising agents of discord more than sowers of discord – invites us to examine how soft incentives – non-economic incentives such as social status, finding a good mate, getting good friends, awards, public praise in your workplace or community, recognition, and acceptance – slip under the radar.
Soft incentives play a huge role in how we go about life. But we ignore them most of the time and give other vague more acceptable rationales like economics as why we do what we do. When trying to decipher motives, our first point of call as to what influences behavior usually is money and material gains. E.g “follow the money.” However, that is not all there is.
It is Not All About The Money
Exclusion hurts for a reason. Kids who have no pressure to make economic gains know this. And this instinct doesn't disappear when we become adults. If anything, it multiplies. Interestingly, economics and material goods signal the importance of these soft incentives. Consider, for instance, that we wish to join specific interest groups, say a music club because we love music and wish to share this enjoyment with others. Being left out therefore, hurts just as much as losing money. We may however, as a means of recovering from the sting, earn money to get into the club. Or at least do something so praiseworthy that those who shut you out have no other reason but to regret and envy you.
When I observe fraudsters (called yahoo boys in Nigeria), I realize that past a certain point, hunger or poverty ceases to be their problem. If it were, they would not signal as hard as they do when they get the money. To them, it is not enough that they have money; others must know that they have money. So, they – as I have observed them – drive into public spaces, with blaring car speakers, park, open their car doors, and just disturb everyone in the vicinity. They would buy bottles of wine and throw a wild ad-hoc party right there at the park. This is definitely not about money.
For many men also who have tethered their confidence to the material wealth they can boast of, they cannot dismiss the epicaricacy that comes with seeing those who mocked them while they were still poor. In a nutshell, it is not enough that they rich now; those who didn't respect them when they had nothing must see them now and respect them. In other words, they have earned money to earn respect. Money is a means to an end. The same applies to truth, knowledge, and rationality.
Knowledge As Crutch
To the crux of the matter.
For many, as I have seen, (myself included), it is not enough to know the truth; we must disabuse people of their delusion. This behaviour briefly explains why disagreements over things that can safely be classified as trivia (most philosophical musings) are emotionally charged. It is a case of believing in the "truth" so much that everyone who disagrees is either a moron, delusional, malicious, or whatever derogatory qualification.
To us, the fun in knowing the truth is not in knowing the truth. The fun is seeing how much you can influence others with what you know. The fun is in the persuasion, in the awakening of ‘an other’ from a dogmatic slumber. The joy is knowing that what you know and have shared is doing something to others. It is the joy akin to putting a smile on a lover’s face with some secret treat or a gift. Which, I concede, is not bad on certain terms as some revelations do have practical consequences. However, a pathology occurs when you believe that the potency of the truth is in its ability to persuade. No, persuasion is a marketing skill.
To judge backward – from result to revelation – rather than seeing the intricacies of revelation on its merit is torture to the soul. Simply put, don't judge the value of truth by how well you can persuade. Humans are complex like that. A product is not the best because it sells best.
You may need to pair the truth with marketing if you are concerned about the impact. (“May” being the keyword). But human behavior falls for desire and marketing primarily. Even Hitler could sell his ideas to a base. How we sell something is as important. Do not expect that the truth will sell itself. Except that the danger of dilution exists somewhere.
Truth Without An Advertising Budget
Why am I writing this? Because the ire of disagreement is real. So real that it moves us like a heavy current. It moves us so hard while also assuring us that this movement is a self-decided one.
I am also writing this to console anyone whose social status, acceptance, and other soft incentives have diminished because of weak epistemologies (women are prone to be dismissed due to accusations of irrationality).
Lastly, I am writing to advocate for the separation of knowledge from the will. Seeing the peculiar ability of these rationalizing species to make knowledge work for the will, I say that anything is possible – evil or good – when wielded by the appropriate will to achieve it.
An idea is neither good nor truthful because it has traction. Or because it is popular. It is not bad either because a despicable character holds the notion. What you must do, is learn to check the truth on its own merit and if found to be solid, that you hold on to it whether you have a good advertising budget or not. Vale.
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