Question Everything

by Richard Sacks

Lost Arts Research Institute

Young human beings need to trust and pay attention to their parents, just like young mammals do in the animal kingdom. Our lives can depend on doing that. But most of us are trained from a young age to trust not just our parents but also authority figures of all kinds and to believe what they tell us is true. That system works fine as long as the authority figures in our lives are benevolent and honest. But what happens if those authority figures become corrupt or degenerate into violent criminals? The answer is evident throughout our current society. That very trust that kept us safe as small children (assuming we had good parents) has now become the means of our destruction.

Most of us have been programmed to believe many basic assumptions. For example, we believe the educational system is to help us become more educated, aware of what is happening around us and capable of dealing with it in a constructive way. We believe that science is “objective” and trustworthy as a source of cutting edge knowledge. We believe government leaders are working selflessly to keep society safe and prosperous, and all of us free to live as we choose. At least in America, that was supposed to be the idea. We believe the medical system is there to keep us healthy, or restore our health quickly and safely if we become sick. We have believed that our military is working to protect us from outside threats, that’s why that part of the government is called the department of defense. And speaking of government, their job is to safeguard our freedom from all kinds of dangers so we can live our lives in peace and pursue whatever goals we have for ourselves. All of our government leaders have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, which keeps government in its proper role. Economic experts work tirelessly to make sure our lives and our country remain prosperous and abundant so we have unlimited opportunities for success. But what happens if all these assumptions have become false? How do we cope with that situation and what is our best course of action?

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