The illusion of smarts, the illusion of understanding. The pretense to know… and cancer

Photo by Sean Benesh on Unsplash

We, humans, negotiate our way in life… with circumstances, schedules, things, and other people. From cradle to grave… we could say, that is life… negotiating every step, winning some and losing some.

But here is the thing: the rules are not clear, not clean, and not overt.

You cannot be sure what constitutes winning, and what constitutes losing a step… in fact, most steps: you have no idea.

But, as society, as a race, we have trained ourselves to pretend: to look as if we knew… maybe even feel as if we knew.

The lower the intellectual capabilities of the individual, the bigger the pretense.

It seems to work: if you nod, if you don’t ask questions, if you look intelligent, people assume you understood, and you earn points, or at least don’t lose some… except when you scratch the surface, when the thing comes up in life, you can see that you didn’t understand, or what you understood is worthless.

If life were a supermarket, you walk away with a cartful of useless junk that creates the toxic landfills of your life.