{"id":2164,"date":"2011-06-23T13:38:35","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T20:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:22:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:22:03","slug":"the-danger-of-isms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/23\/the-danger-of-isms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger of “-isms”"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my bigger regrets is publicly declaring myself an atheist.<\/p>\n

Not because I\u2019ve made a recent conversion to faith\u2014I\u2019m still confident in my original opinion<\/a>. Rather, because I believe \u201c-isms\u201d are dangerous, whether it is theism, atheism, vegetarianism, Buddhism or any other philosophy.<\/p>\n

When a belief becomes an \u201c-ism\u201d it generally becomes a part of your identity. It\u2019s not simply that I abstain from eating meat; I am<\/em> a vegetarian. The shift is from merely having a conviction to being a conviction.<\/p>\n

Humans are funny creatures when it comes to our identities. Having<\/em> a belief has little baggage. You will defend the belief when it is reasonable, and abandon it given enough contrary evidence.<\/p>\n

Being<\/em> a belief, or \u201c-ist\u201d, is different. The belief becomes something to defend zealously, the way you would defend a part of your body under attack.<\/p>\n

Having Convictions Versus Being Convictions<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting agnosticism towards everything. Your level of certainty in a belief isn\u2019t related to whether it is a part of your identity or not. I have far greater conviction in the force of gravity than atheism or vegetarianism, yet I don\u2019t call myself a gravitist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The difference, to me, appears to be a more social one. People decide they are an \u201c-ist\u201d as a way of distinguishing themselves from others. Gravitism doesn\u2019t exist because there aren\u2019t a<\/em>gravitists, who deny the existence of gravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsms\u201d develop as a way to separate people into distinct tribes. The downside is that tribal logic isn\u2019t rational. Instead of trying to decide which belief system is true or most pragmatic, people defend their tribe at all costs.<\/p>\n

The damage of \u201cisms\u201d is obvious in politics. Instead of rationally trying to decide on the best way to govern, most effort is spent on partisan battles.<\/p>\n

Two Ways of Avoiding \u201cIsms\u201d<\/h2>\n

To me, there seems to be only two ways to avoid the destructive effects of \u201cisms\u201d, but each has tradeoffs:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Never declare your \u201cisms\u201d, either publicly or to yourself.<\/li>\n
  2. Have \u201cisms\u201d but fiercely avoid making them a part of your identity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first approach is simply to avoid declaring allegiance to any tribe. The advantage of this approach is that you can have convictions, but they never become an identity-defining \u201cism\u201d. I know people who, for the most part, don\u2019t eat meat, but refuse to call themselves vegetarians or vegans.<\/p>\n

    The downside of this approach is that it makes communicating your personality and opinions much more difficult. I reluctantly call myself a \u201cvegetarian\u201d since that makes it easier to communicate to people that I don\u2019t eat meat.<\/p>\n

    The second approach is to reluctantly accept \u201cisms\u201d but to fiercely avoid letting them define you. The advantage is that it lets you succinctly communicate who you are to the outside world. One word replaces a lengthy philosophical discussion.<\/p>\n

    The danger of this approach is that it requires a difficult mental stance of both accepting an \u201cism\u201d for communicative purposes, but avoiding it as part of your identity. Such a distinction is tenuous at best, and it is easy to fall back into the tribe-defending irrationality that \u201cisms\u201d promote.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m not sure which approach is right; I tend to use a mix. For my political beliefs, I follow the first approach\u2014I\u2019m far from agnostic on many political issues, but the \u201cism\u201d irrationality here is simply too great for me to afford the second approach. Yet for vegetarianism and atheism, I\u2019ve reluctantly accepted the labels while internally trying to avoid their grasp on my identity.<\/p>\n

    Caveat: \u201cIsms\u201d as a Way of Forcing Ideological Commitment<\/h2>\n

    I dislike \u201cisms\u201d because I believe that the proper reason to believe something in almost all cases is because the evidence supports it. Strengthening conviction beyond evidence just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

    But, a possible benefit of making a belief part of your identity is that it encourages commitment to that belief. While I\u2019m now reluctantly vegetarian (in ideological labeling, not in practice), in the beginning declaring myself a vegetarian left less wiggle room than simply deciding \u201cnot to eat meat\u201d.<\/p>\n

    Perhaps this \u201cism\u201d benefit means it\u2019s possible to devote yourself zealously to an idea when it hasn\u2019t yet become a habit, and only after taking the first or second option of psychologically distancing yourself from it.<\/p>\n

    What are your thoughts? Do you actively cultivate or avoid \u201cisms\u201d in your life? <\/strong>Please share your thoughts in the comments<\/a>!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of my bigger regrets is publicly declaring myself an atheist. Not because I\u2019ve made a recent conversion to faith\u2014I\u2019m still confident in my original opinion. Rather, because I believe \u201c-isms\u201d are dangerous, whether it is theism, atheism, vegetarianism, Buddhism or any other philosophy. When a belief becomes an \u201c-ism\u201d it generally becomes a part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[681,658],"tags":[623,376,306,423,622,22,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-2164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nc-mindset","7":"category-rationality","8":"tag-ism","9":"tag-atheism","10":"tag-consistency","11":"tag-habit","12":"tag-identity","13":"tag-philosophy","14":"tag-rationality","15":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Danger of "-isms" - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/23\/the-danger-of-isms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Danger of "-isms" - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my bigger regrets is publicly declaring myself an atheist. Not because I\u2019ve made a recent conversion to faith\u2014I\u2019m still confident in my original opinion. Rather, because I believe \u201c-isms\u201d are dangerous, whether it is theism, atheism, vegetarianism, Buddhism or any other philosophy. 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