Posted by:
ookami
(
)
Date: September 06, 2019 12:15PM
Done & Done, why did I have to read your post after seeing "Rashomon" for the first time?
In the film, four characters tell their version of a rape and murder. But in the film, all four characters tell different versions that flatter themselves and make the others look worse. The audience and a wandering monk in the film are left wondering, "Which character told the truth about what happened? Did ANY of them tell the truth?" And later may start wondering, "If the characters in the film told different versions based on their egos, is it possible that most of what people tell each other is a version that flatters themselves and their own self-interests? And if that's true, how can I trust what people are saying is true?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RashomonCombine those questions with the excerpt from Levine's book about people being hardwired to "truth-default," and now the line of thinking is, "We think that the things we hear are true and we need that to have a basis of trust in a society. But if stories and versions of events that people tell might be versions that flatter themselves and serve their interests, the truth-default state might not be working in our favor. It might, in fact, be a disadvantage allowing those around us to take advantage of us and for us to take advantage of others. And if the trust-default is part of what a civil society is built on, . . ." (If readers are following this train of thought at home, it's okay to scream if you haven't already.)
As for why people can see through deceptions despite being truth-default and the problem of the paragraph above, all I can say to both is, "I don't know."