“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.”
—C.G. Jung
People like to tell the same stories, over and over again. The truth of those stories is changed, imperceptibly, in each telling. Our identities are a lacquer, painted on by the stories we tell ourselves and others.
Identity accrual and world building are our principal occupations. I’m this and that, signaling to society my tribe and allegiances. One thing that seems less common is people capable of admitting that they were wrong or made a mistake. It’s partly because doing so means we are open to change. Or, our connections with the rest of the world are open to reconfiguration. And people really don’t want that from themselves, or from others.
People want consistency. They want to be right. It’s difficult to be these things in a world that is always changing and where we make decisions with imperfect information.
Easier to misremember that we were right all the time, adding on another layer of our identity. Brittle, but bright.
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