A Message Also Must Achieve Herd Immunity

They'll come after one person, but they can't come after everybody

The tragedy of the human experience is that we’re so easily conditioned to believe things that aren’t true. The easiest lies for nefarious forces to hide are the ones that don’t hurt us until months or years down the road.

For example, if somebody provides you with bad instructions on how to shingle your roof, you won’t notice right away. You’ll get done with the job, dust off your hands, and look at your work with pride. But if you’ve left flaws where water can get in, your rafters will start to rot and mold will grow on your insulation. By the time you see leaks developing in your kitchen, it will be too late.

That’s an easy example. Keep in mind that the lies that we’ve been conditioned to believe are much more nefarious. We have to deal with people who tell you that the reason your roof is leaking is the fault of those that care most for you in all the world. As the leaks get worse, your misplaced hatred continues to grow and you end up surrendering all your power to the bad actors who started your problem in the first place.

In one sense, writing is the act of opposing and combating false messaging. However, you must keep in mind that those that benefit from lies are going to be quick to silence anyone who they perceive as a threat to their consolidation of power.

Beware of lies stacked on top of other lies

It’s difficult to convince anyone to engage with anything they’ve been conditioned not to consider. As a writer, you must employ subtlety when approaching this objective. You have to begin with irrefutable facts and build your argument with care and deliberation.

Your audience is aware that the world is filled with deceit. We amuse ourselves by watching skilled magicians perform card tricks. They can weave a lie in plain sight. They can do things that seem impossible, and they can trick us if we let them. You have to be mindful that the most effective deceits are stacked upon each other.

I’ve often wondered how many people walk away from the performance of a street magician still wearing their watch. Do you think a person who has trained himself to skillfully reach into your wallet is going to be content to rely on your charity?

From what I’ve seen of the world, charity always comes up short.

We can learn from the success of the past

Liars are skillful, and they know how to get around your mechanisms of protection. The masses cling in silent desperation to the beliefs they assume have withstood the test of time. Meanwhile their roof leaks. They blame the groups they’ve always blamed because that’s what tradition compels them to do.

Whenever a new idea comes onto the scene, it’s met with resistance and skepticism. That can be intimidating to consider until you recognize how many complex ideas have been effectively implanted into the collective psyche.

Today, humanity recognizes that the Earth orbits the sun. That seems obvious, but we should be mindful that there was a time when people would be burned alive for suggesting such a thing.

There are still things that will get you burned alive even to this day.

Don’t unconsciously submit to ignorance

The lie of the geocentric model provided a worldview that deprived humanity of scientific understanding, but increased the power of a select few. Cumbersome and absurd explanations were developed to justify why the geocentric model did not align with observable reality.

The labors of humanity were wasted in defense of a deceit. The geocentric model created a barrier that limited human advancement. Neither of these detractions was obvious to anyone who went through their days trusting in the truth of that fallacy.

The masses believed in the geocentric model because that’s what they’d always believed. Even without their conscious awareness, they came to equate questioning that belief with pain. They avoided that and other related lines of thought.

They submitted to ignorance without realizing what they had surrendered.

But not everyone.

Swimming in a sea of deceit

Persistence, steadfastness, and fearlessness are the keys to breaking through the wall of lies. Writers must be brave.

I often use my platform to attempt to coax my readers into thinking about the world in a different way. Like the bad actor who disguises his thefts with the distraction of a street show, I practice a form of mental sleight of hand. But I am not like him. We use similar tactics, but I employ them to empower rather than to deceive.

I aspire to toss life preservers to people struggling in the waves.

That’s my working theory anyway, but I recognize it’s entirely possible that I’m lying to myself. We do live in a world of lies and that influences us.

Don’t be afraid of alienating your followers

Even the most skilled writer can make the mistake of pushing too hard. There are times when I’ll make a statement that flies like a brick. I’ll receive hundreds of hostile comments. I’ll lose followers and subscribers.

When that happens, writers are tempted to walk back their assertions. Yes, there are times when losing readers means that you’ve made a mistake. In those cases, you have to practice repentance and humility.

But there are other times when the audience is wrong.

Complex truths are as easily rejected as simple lies

Writers need to remember that you can’t teach Physics in a day. You have to be both patient and demanding of your readers. You can’t let them bully you into abandoning a path of logic you know to be valid. We’re all working together in pursuit of enlightenment. You have to boldly face those areas in your brain that have been locked out because of conditioning and fear.

When I sat through Physics classes in college, the teacher often said something that seemed to fly in the face of logic. That’s when I began to understand the mindset of the peasant from the middle ages who first heard a philosopher suggest that the sun might be at the center of our solar system.

Like that medieval peasant, my first thought was to start gathering up wood for a bonfire that would cleanse the world of deceit.

Fortunately for me, I elected to listen and learn instead of burn.

We’re surrounded by con artists and tricksters. You have to learn how to become reliant on your own logic. You have to be willing to pierce the veil of deceit. You have to learn how to be fair. It’s not easy.

Truth and popularity form a contentious union

Whenever you propose a radical advancement in human understanding, you’ll encounter resistance. That’s part of the game. When Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin suggested stars were made of Hydrogen and Helium, her ideas were forcefully rejected. Then, her critics took credit for her work.

Though it may not seem like it, even that is progress.

Pioneers don’t retreat at the first sign of resistance. So much of writing is about expanding your readership, but you can’t rely on growth strategies only. You also have to be willing to lose followers who initially reject the uncertainty of the new in favor of the comfort of the old.

You can’t use willpower to make your fellow human beings immune to a disease. That requires vaccines. But vaccines are most effective when you can establish herd immunity. The same is true with ideas.

Become an agent of enlightenment

Be persistent, steadfast, and fearless. Accept that losing readers is an element of expansion. The ones that stay will challenge you. But, little by little, if you are true to your message, you will convince them to join your cause. Then they will convince others. Your community of inoculated thinkers will continue to grow. Eventually, you’ll change the world.

We know this is true. Today, there are few people inclined to think that the sun orbits the Earth. That truth has been hardwired into humanity for the betterment of all. Scientific fact has been established.

We’ve developed immunity to one lie at least.

Now, if we could only get our neighbor to stop blaming the innocent for his leaky roof. Stay in the fight. It’s frustrating and exhausting but what other choice do we have?

Slow progress is progress nonetheless.

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