Convincing Ourselves

The idea of having healthy levels of self-esteem, self-worth, and confidence is well recognized in psychology literature. In fact, since at least the 70s there has been a lot of work done on this and for a few decades raising self-esteem and self-worth was considered pivotal in treating clients with psychological disorders, bringing up healthy children, and even success in general. The idea of 'ego strengthening', as it came to be known in hypnosis literature, was ubiquitous in almost all kinds of therapy and change. However, while going through some videos of Jordan Peterson discussing the idea of social hierarchies and going through some literature on related ideas, I begun to wonder if ego strengthening alone is enough, or perhaps have we defined it well enough. Success in a society means being on top of the social hierarchy. You are the CEO, the Politician, or were born in or married into money and power. Whatever shame or form it takes, success is being on to...

Introduction Influencing the general public is a hotly debated topic in the policy. In any form of government reforms and agendas have to be 'sold' to the public. The government has traditionally been done through information dissemination through the media and done so quite effectively. An example can be of course selling wars or military interventions to the public. When the intent, however, is misinformation on a large scale, it becomes 'propaganda'. Despite its negative connotations, it is surely been present in democracies, as much as in dictatorships. A few years ago we have seen a move towards 'Nudging' individuals also called the Nudge Theory. This was popularized by Book by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler in their book ' Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness '. An example of this could be the wording on a referendum to discourage a certain outcome or perhaps limiting choices for the consumers on the type o...

Before reading the passage below, please take three long, calm, deep breaths. Read the passage below, calmly and slowly. Once you have taken your time to read through the passage, it will leave you with a feeling of stillness and beauty. Anna loved to go outside and talk long walks when she was bored or wanted to relax. She lived among the hilly plains of lush green Irish country side, so nature was her best friend. On this beautiful sunny day, she stepped out of her old wooden, but cozy cottage and started walking along the road towards the river banks. The old road towards the river banks was surrounded by lush green land and a clear blue sky. Today, it looked particularly breathtaking as Anna could see as far as her sight. The air was crisp and clear, and everything around her was green. There was a slight breeze in the air and the grass around her would sway every now and then. The air was cool,  sun was warm, and the sky was blue creating a perfect day to take a walk. An...

The Beautiful Journey Jin and Lui were the fiercest fighters at Master Yang's dojo. They had trained at this dojo in a secluded mountain peak since they were both 6 years of age. Being good at Kung Fu had been their sole purpose in life. Now, 20, they both helped glorify the name of Master Yang and his dojo in all the land. However, even though they both were great, there could only ever be one 'Dragon' in all of China, either Jin or Lui. The competition to become the 'Dragon' was the biggest competition in all of China, held once every 25 years, so every generation has one Dragon. Jin and Lui had been practicing for this their whole life. They had sweated and bled together, went through sleepless nights, broken bones, insults and defeats to be able to enter this competition. All the pain had to pay off now, they both thought. In the supervision of Master Yang, Jin and Lui went from one level of the competition to the next. Training continuously, perf...