Issue #156
Being disagreeable
Today, I’m going to step off the reservation for a minute. We’re not going to talk about blogging… or business. I’m going to share with you an opinion.
Our society has a way of “encouraging” you to agree with it. There’s certain things that are considered normal. That everybody does. And a “group think” comes into play which is very tough to challenge.
Like, going to college. Getting a job. Buying a house. Saving for retirement. Hold certain viewpoints.
It’s a template. And, it’s safe. It is reliable (or so they think). It is safety in numbers.
It is easy to agree. Being agreeable with all that is easy. Most human beings tend to operate in packs and they will decide what is right by looking around to see what everybody else is doing.
It is a shame, though, that so much of it simply doesn’t work.
I dunno, maybe it’s just me but I don’t think it is. More and more, point by point, I have come to the conclusion that if the masses say it is the right way to do it…. going the opposite way is probably better.
I know. It seems ballsy to say that. But, let me show you were I’m at…
As an example, society says you have to go to college. If you don’t, you’ll be a loser with no good employment prospects. You’re told your future is flippin’ burgers. Yet, what I see are kids saddling themselves with major debt, often having gotten degrees that have no market value whatsoever. These kids come out of college with very little prospects and they end up getting some generic job likely having little to do with what they went to school for.
Did they do the right thing?
I can point to swaths of examples of people who never went to college who went on to have major, positive impacts on this world. They’re the ones that hired all the college graduates!
But, yet, if a kid purposely decides not to attend college these days, their parents will likely throw a fit. Everybody will tell them what a fool they are.
On another topic… society has us trained to gauge our success by the amount of stuff we have. If we have a big house, fancy cars and all that… then we’re successful. Problem is, most of the people who own those things don’t actually own them. The banks do! All you’re actually doing is making monthly payments to the bank. Those outwardly successful people are actually loaded with debt. Many times, they have little to no savings because they were so busy buying all that crap. Ironically, many times some family who lives in a detached trailer on some land and drives a cheap pickup truck actually have higher net worths! At least they own it!
It continues…
How most people eat is bad for them, even if the “experts” told them otherwise. So, they eat that garbage, end up with medical problems as a result, end up on pills. It fuels the healthcare industry. It fuels the pharmaceutical industry. It is one big circle of crap… from corporations crafting fake industrial food which helps to fuel the corporations overcharging for healthcare and the insurance industry. All of it completely acceptable by our society. God forbid you go use some “alternative medical treatment”, you quack!
Anyway, I’m fairly sure some of what I just said might have pissed off a few of you. But, here’s all I’m saying…
Being agreeable… or mainstream… is often wrong.
At the very least, you’ve gotta take a moment to look at the bigger picture.
These days, there is true power and freedom in being disagreeable.
Point by point, I have found that whatever “everybody says” is often wrong. It seems to me that the societally accepted ways of doing things will end up with you being enslaved, unhealthy and ridden with debt.
Heck, many times that idea of “everybody says” is actually a myth created by the mainstream press, which is driven by various financial interests in creating these things “everybody knows”. There’s a lot of money being made as a result of these generally accepted practices.
So be willing to question things.
It is OK to be disagreeable. In fact, I encourage it. 🙂
It isn’t about just disagreeing for the sake of doing so. It is about making up your own mind and not letting “group think” take over.
– David