Figments:
"Meism"

“Meism” is the error of exaggerating the value of one’s own point of view. It’s at the core of countless fallacies.

Geocentrism — My point of reference is the universe’s point of reference. The way the world looks to me is the way it really is.

Racism — My race is the good or pure one. My race is varied and subtle. Other races are more homogeneous.

Speciesism, Homocentrism — Humans are the pinnacle of creation or evolution. As a human, I have a special status in the universe.

Patriarchy — We men are better than those women.

Creationism — The way the world is now to me is the way the world has always been.

End Times — The time I'm living in is the end time, the most important time in over a thousand years. The things that I see happening are way more important than anything that happened hundreds of years ago.

Religion — My people are God’s chosen. My religion is the right one. My holy book is the right holy book.

Afterlife, Reincarnation—I might look like a mortal creature, but really I'm immortal.

Ethics — My good deeds are important. My misdeeds are not.

Paranoia — Powerful people are conspiring against me (how important I must be).

It’s perfectly natural to exaggerate your own point of view. We evolved consciousness not in order to apprehend objective reality but in order to succeed better. Any would-be ancestors that accepted others’ points of view as equal to their own were out-competed by our actual ancestors that saw to their own needs first. This instinctive selfishness amounts to the scientific version of original sin. We are born to put ourselves first. Original sin is our inherited tendency to lie, cheat, and steal. Meism is what makes it all possible. A good deal of modern subjectivity is an attempt to get past meism. The first lesson of skepticism is to question self-serving beliefs.

The flipside of original sin is original virtue. Original virtue is our built-in capacity for empathy, forgiveness, friendship, caring, sacrifice, in a word, love. The same evolutionary forces that made us good at cheating also made us good at helping each other. As mammals, our very mode of being is founded on 125 million years of nursing our young. Mammals flourished not just because we have hot blood and big brains, but also because we are so good at caring for each other. Apes in particular and humans foremost among them live in large, cooperative groups. Neighborliness is built in.

—JoT
January 2006, 2010

For more fallacies and myths, see the Figments hub.

top

super-fast gun