Being Wrong by F. R.

What is being wrong. Many of us never know when we are in fact wrong. We go through many moments in life when we never think we are wrong. When we figure out we are wrong, I feel like a majority of people do not want to admit to being wrong. When knowing when wrong one might feel sad, loss of pride, and embarrassed.  There are many examples in my life when I already know I am wrong, but I don’t ever want to admit I am wrong. It may be the right thing to admit it, but for me I really can’t accept me being wrong in some situations. I feel like a lot of people these days can not accept to being wrong, some people have too much pride, or too embarrassed.

 

We go through life, and many of us are wrong at some point in life. We go through life knowing you are wrong, but don’t admit to it even though we know we are wrong. This has happened to me many times. I often find it hard for myself to admit I am wrong when I am. I don’t know why I do this, but I feel many people are like me when this happens. When I know I am wrong I feel as if my pride in myself is jeopardized if I was admit to my wrong. Pride is a huge pleasure in which satisfies a human. If I am wrong, admitting to being wrong will jeopardize my pride. I can not tell you why this feeling happened, but it’s just the nature of myself, and the nature of others.  Admitting to being wrong can also be very embarrassing. People who are often wrong will not admit they are wrong because they feel embarrassed. Why would you blame them either. In that same situation if you are arguing a topic for a long amount of time from my experiences it can be very embarrassing to admit to being wrong. For myself I do get embarrassed when I am wrong in certain scenarios. I think being embarrassed about being wrong is a very normal feeling to receive when knowing oneself is wrong. When we finally accept top being wrong is it that bad. The pain is temporary but now how will your words be trusted because they are not perfect. What is wrong with being not perfect. Nothing is wrong with being not perfect. It is human to make mistakes, to be wrong. Everyone does it even if you think you are perfect you still make mistakes. When you look at all the major sports figures in life literally everyone is criticized. Even stars like Lebron James and Michael Jordan, get criticized every day. It is a way of life, and everyone is wrong at some point in your life. Nobody really likes to admit it, but you have to accept that not everyone is perfect. It is hard, but I have made a lot of mistakes throughout life. I honestly could give a damn about it, because it shaped me into who I am today. People need to realize even though we may not like it, but shit happens and we have to deal with it and move on.
Being wrong is human nature. Who likes being wrong, no one. It happens though I have been wrong multiple times, I don’t like it. When I am wrong I feel embarrassed, and lose of pride. People have to deal with the fact that they are not perfect. It’s a way of life that nobody likes. I in fact have a very hard time admitting to being wrong. I have to deal with it. At the end of the day you have to move on from your wrong and start thinking about the right in your life, and enjoy life itself.

I’m Right, You’re Wrong by C. M.

Sometimes or maybe even most times when we disagree with a person we automatically think they are wrong. Why do we do this? Disagreeing or just having different views on an idea will make you think the person you are speaking to is an idiot. From a personal perspective I would think it’s because of the fear of being wrong. Us as human always want to overpower others to be the one on top. I will admit it. I’ve done this. I’ve talked to people had a disagreement on a simple talk and my views completely change on them for a bit. I say in my head “Is this person serious? They must be dumb.” When in reality they could be just as right or even more right than you.

The fear of being wrong gets to most people. We want to be right so often that even when we’re wrong we have the feeling that we’re right until the last moment. A perfect example is one Kathryn Shulz talked about. When we were growing up we saw a cartoon where a coyote was chasing a roadrunner. The roadrunner runs off a cliff and flies. The coyote runs off the cliff with it and keeps running in midair until he looks down. That’s when the coyote realizes he’s wrong and falls. Thats us when we argue with someone and you keep fighting your point. I’ve been that coyote multiple times. From talking to friends, teachers, and even my parents. I’ve wanted to prove a person wrong more than trying to listen to what they say. I blank my head and argue. Then I stop talking and listen to what a person has to say then it hits you. You’ve been wrong this whole time. You get that silence and blank image in your head. Your heart sinks and you say “oh yeah, you’re right.” I have been a victim of this many times. Being wrong is such a fear we don’t even realize it until it’s too late. What if we felt more secure about being wrong and being happy when corrected since we are consuming the right information when we had the wrong one the whole time? How would that change society? We all know being wrong is perfectly fine.

Many people watch motivational videos and if you haven’t. Well not to spoil anything but if you’re interested in watching any of them they all talk about being wrong, and failing. Then getting back up and trying it again. Even in school we talk about being wrong and having that be okay. Teachers will tell you write this, or do this math problem and if you don’t get it right it’s okay. We hear that on a daily basis but how come we still want to be right. We get up on that whiteboard get the wrong answer. A few seconds later you get corrected and move on. Then you realize it wasn’t that bad. We are wrong more than we are right, then again it’s still a fear. It’s still a thing many people don’t want to do.

TED Talk: Being Wrong by T. M.

In class the Ted talk we watched really hit at the core of an issue I think is immensely important, the issue of close mindedness. In my mind when she says that the feeling of being wrong is that of being right I think this is a primary consequence of ego. If as humans our egos were more in check and we were more aware of our fallibility in almost every area we would not feel the need to proudly proclaim of our rightness in every area while simultaneously rejecting all other perspectives and ideas. This is classic close minded thinking. You have a line of logic that works in your head to lead to a certain conclusion and so you accept this explanation as the “truth” without further explanation. Then over time this idea sinks deeper and deeper into your psyche until it is rigidly aligned with your paradigm. Now you are trapped in a mental game with yourself because you have given such credence to this idea that if another person presents a new idea, or an idea that contradicts yours you become defensive and you use a large number of fallacies to disprove the idea without even considering its actual implications. This is a direct consequence of inflexibility, or rigidity as a thinker and it is the worst state of mind you could be in to learn about the world. I relate this all back to the ego because without egotistical thinking we would not get defensive when our ideas were challenged. This is because our ego is a protective mechanism that sells us the lie that our ideas are infallible and correct. It is our ego that associates our pride with our ideas. Objectively there is no reason whatsoever to simply assume that your particular set of ideas is in perfect accordance with the nature of reality. The only reason to accept this as a personal truth is to protect oneself from the possibility of being wrong. However being wrong is what leads to growth because you are able to discard old ideas and progress onto newer and better versions of these ideas. This is the process of evolution and it is absolutely essential to the world of ideas. When ideas are subject to a kind of fair natural selection among a community of people the best ideas naturally rise to the top based on their merits alone. In nature just as often as the strongest tiger survives the weakest one dies and so in this process of evolution we must also be able to eliminate the weak links in our thinking. The death of old wrong ideas is what makes space for the newer more accurate ideas.  However this is a perfect scenario where every person involved is quenching their own egos desire to say “no I’m right, you’re wrong, that’s the end of it.” It seems to me that most people are naturally terrified of new ideas and new paradigms and facts and frames of reference. The reason is that all of these things turn the world of cold hard facts into a sea of ever changing models and ideas that is never solid. This inherently scares people because it is like replacing the firm hard ground under their feet with a roiling current of change and evolution. If our society is to be of maximum efficiency it is absolutely essential that individuals realise that they are not perfect and that to attain a higher level of awareness about reality they must be willing to change, give up, and evolve their ideas along with the rest of the tide of civilization. I think in a world that is now so immensely connected by the cybersphere of the internet the evolution of ideas has taken a rapid acceleration forward however the next obstacle in the way of progress is the human ego, and the delusions it engenders in the people who listen to its lying voice.