A number of years ago, a friend of mine was looking for homes in North Carolina. She, her husband, and disabled son fell in love with an aging farm house in inner North Carolina. She wanted a place where her son could live, should he outlive his parents.
She posted the listing to Facebook and asked for feedback. While a few people asked questions about the house, there were hundreds of supportive comments came in.
Wanting to be a good friend, and because it was North Carolina, I took the address and went to look at the climate change maps. They were making a decision on a house they hoped would survive for the next 50 years.
Even though this home was inland, the climate change maps predicted early disaster making the site of this home unlivable.
I sent her an email with a link to her climate change map and a screenshot of the map.
She mocked me publicly. She said that my "West Coast values looked down on her for living in the South." Hundreds of her followers mocked my arrogance and idiocy. It was humiliating, honestly.
I never said another word to her about the house. They bought the house.
The house and land were flooded with parts of the house were destroyed in Hurricane Helene.
Further, there's no FEMA help for them due to Trump's intervention in Congress and the subsequent defunding of FEMA.
Her response: "Who could have predicted this?"
I didn't bother responding because in her mind – she had no idea this could happen.
Doing what you want in the face of wisdom is human.
When I was a child, people would witness my mother's abusive behavior toward me. They would see her tell me that I was a demon or I was a slut or some other crazy thing. (My mother suffered from schizophrenia.) She would hit me in public.
Rather than believe their own eyes, people preferred their own belief – my mother was a good person who loved her kids. Certainly, it's something my mother said so it had to be true, right?
I'm not talking about one person. We lived in a small town. I'm talking about neighbors, relatives, friends, parents of friends, professionals, professors, and housewives.
People don't believe what they see. They don't believe what they hear or even facts.
They believe what is convenient and makes them look good. From this, they make idiotic decisions.
An example of this is people would rather believe that aliens built the pyramids rather than a lot of people got together and build something amazing a long time ago.
We live in a time when a certain group of people's feelings matter more than research science, actual lived experience, or really anything knowledge.
We've seen entire media corporations give up their credibility to capitulate to these folks' feeling. Law firms and even famous colleges, pillars of intellectualism, have made decisions based on these folks' feelings.
Entire retail chains have literally destroyed their profits and sales figures in order to cater to these folks feelings.
They are sticking to their decisions despite tanking their stock, sales dropping every quarter, empty stores, and a loss of their credit rating. For some reason, they refuse to change back.
Instead, they double down on catering to the feelings of these folks even thought these decisions are killing their company.
People voted for a man they knew was a crook on the hopes that he would screw over someone other than them. The man literally said, out loud, that he was going to steal from them.
They voted for him due to their resentments, sense of righteousness, and other emotions.
Now, they have no workers. Food is rotting in the fields. They've lost large contracts and subsidies. Farms are foreclosing at record rates. These same folks businesses are closing. Car factories are closing.
Inflation is booming. The economy is crashing. The dollar is way down.
It made no sense to buy the house or vote for this guy or believe that aliens built the pyramids.
It is, however, very human. Do we give up and continue to make dumb decisions? Or is there another way?
How do we make better decisions for ourselves?
First, we need to acknowledge our feelings. If we aren't aware of what we feel, we will forever be a slave to them. This is excellent work for you and your journal. Track how you feel every day. This will give you an excellent barometer of your feelings.
Decisions must be made based on facts. But how?
1. You will need to look up things either on Google or ask a librarian.
2.Write the answers down with references.
- Share your references and facts with those affected by your decisions. They may see things that your emotions disguise as "a great house in a safe place."
- When you've collected all of the facts, you are only then ready to make a decision.
If we are going to claw our way out of this chaos, we all must become dedicated to facts. Our future depends on it.
