A practical guide to always being right, without letting reality interfere.
Introduction
Are you worried that you may once have fallen into a contradiction? Have you defended one thing on Monday and the opposite on Thursday? Has someone pointed out an inconsistency and left you with that unpleasant urge to explain yourself?
Do not worry. You are not alone.
Millions of people lead perfectly normal lives without letting facts, logic or consistency interfere too much with their convictions.
And you can do it too.
In this manual you will learn simple techniques to protect your beliefs, keep your self-esteem intact, and maintain a reasonable sense of moral superiority regardless of what happens around you.
Reality changes. Facts appear. Circumstances get complicated.
But always being right remains within our reach.
• • •
1. How to be right even before thinking
Many people still use an outdated procedure: they observe the facts, reflect, cross-check and, finally, reach a conclusion.
It is slow. It uses energy. And, worse still, there is the risk of ending up changing your mind.
The professional method is far more efficient: first you decide which conclusion you wish to reach, and then you look for the arguments.
The time saved is extraordinary. It also lets you keep the same opinions for decades, regardless of whatever evidence appears.
If you ever catch yourself thinking without having first decided which conclusion you want to reach, stop. You are wasting your time.
• • •
2. Our own side deserves context
One of the most important skills of any mature person is understanding nuance. Especially when it concerns our own side.
If someone in our group gets it wrong, it is worth asking: what circumstances led them to it? What context are we ignoring? What external factors played a part?
When someone from the other group does exactly the same thing, the analysis can be simplified considerably: that is just how they are.
Mastering this ability to switch between complexity and simplicity depending on who is acting makes the world far more comfortable.
• • •
3. How to turn any mistake of your own into a virtue
Suppose you have committed an inconsistency. Do not worry. Inconsistencies are opportunities.
If you change your mind, you show open-mindedness. If you change your principles, you show pragmatism. If you break a promise, you show flexibility. If you contradict what you said yesterday, you show personal growth.
Remember: mistakes are mistakes when others make them. When we make them, they are lessons.
• • •
4. The noble cause
Every behaviour needs a justification and, fortunately, there is an almost universal solution: the noble cause.
Thanks to it, lying can become responsibility; manipulating, pedagogy; withholding information, prudence; attacking, defence; and benefiting personally, service to others.
What matters is not so much what we do as remembering that we know our own good intentions.
• • •
5. How to neutralise what is inconvenient
Facts are a magnificent tool when they cooperate. When they do not, there are alternatives.
If someone presents data, question their intentions. If they present studies, ask who funds them. If they present evidence, demand more context. If they tell a personal experience, remember it is anecdotal. If they bring statistics, say they are cold.
If all else fails, change the subject. And, as a last resort, declare yourself offended. Offence has a strategic advantage: it requires no proof.
• • •
6. The other side is always worse
No mistake should be analysed in isolation. If someone criticises conduct of our group, respond as soon as possible: “What about them, though?”
We may have made a mistake, but they made a bigger one. We may have a problem, but they have many more.
In this way, any moral examination can quickly be turned into a competition. And a competition is usually far more comfortable than an examination of conscience.
• • •
7. The chorus
Self-deception improves greatly when practised in a group.
The group validates: so many people in agreement cannot be wrong. It amplifies: what one person suspects, ten turn into certainty. And it protects: whoever dissents can stop being a person with another perspective and become someone suspicious.
This is how a safe space is built. Not necessarily safe for thinking; safe for not having to.
• • •
8. Outrage as a resource
Outrage is a valuable resource and should therefore be administered selectively.
A behaviour carried out by the others may be a threat to democracy, freedom, morality or coexistence. The same behaviour carried out by our side may be a nuance, a context, or an understandable exception.
Selective outrage lets us concentrate all our moral energy where there is least risk of discovering ourselves.
• • •
Final note
If, while reading this manual, you have thought of several people who ought to read it, do not worry.
It is a completely normal reaction.
In fact, it is probably the last chapter.