Defaults are Bad

I don’t like defaults. A default is a position taken in itself, as an assumption, not a position concluded upon after critical analysis.

An example of a potential default: capitalism is awesome. If a person is told capitalism is awesome their entire life, regards the idea as fundamentally true, and never reaches the conclusion with their own mind, they’ve “defaulted” to the idea.

At the same time, if someone reaches a conclusion with their own mind and then closes their mind to all alternative possibilities, they’ve defaulted. In this circumstance, the person will not change their held idea even when presented with contrary evidence.

Defaulting is a plague. It can be found in every corner of every group of every flavor.

The only cure appears to be constantly questioning and relentlessly valuing the mind as a means of attaining knowledge. If we periodically check on our ideas and trust ourselves to reach conclusions within our pool of information, we can avoid defaulting on individual basis.