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The Law, by Bastiat
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"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

--- James Madison


Lesson 13 - The Conviction of Our Beliefs Print E-mail

Having formulated an opinion or conclusion, one tends to create a recurring habit of thought.

We return to our opinion or conclusion again and again, using it to support other opinions or conclusions. We now treat our opinion as though it were an objective fact, and we place it into our mind classifying it as such. We believe that ours is the right opinion.

As we do this, we develop an attitude. An attitude is no more than an opinion to which conviction has been added. We believe.

As our belief confirms our viewpoint, we become certain that we are right, or correct, in our belief. We begin to predict. We are certain that, in the context of our beliefs, we can expect the world tomarrow to be the same as we experienced it today. We know. And we proceed to act on this "knowledge".

The process of converting our perception of phenomena into action (or reaction) is a narrowing one. We perceive many things (facts). We identify some (or most) of what we perceive.

We classify many of the things we identify into similar groups, to make them easier to remember and process in our minds. We make selections, of what to perceive, or to ignore, of what to identify, and how to classify.

 



 
 

Fundamentals of Liberty