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Paranoia in a Postmodern Age of Collective Trauma

Why Truth and Trust Matter

By Andrew MagersPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
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We’ve all been there. The guy you went to high school with, now gainfully employed at your local auto body shop, has graffitied a 500-word screed on your Facebook wall about the downfall of society and how, if we don’t “wake up!” the end is nigh. Everyone is entitled to moments of existential dread; the problem is, those who use social media to rage against the system typically have about as much perspective on the given matter as a fish to the ocean it swims in. For some ill-formed reason, this guy seems to actually believe he knows what he's talking about. But more to the point, a curious phenomenon has steadily developed since the postmodern era - regardless of training, race, SES, ethnicity, or class - paranoia seems to be gripping us all.

And there seems to be many legitimate reasons to worry. People are scared of losing securities, freedoms, and even their lives. Perhaps, however, our world is not on fire as much as it seems, or at least not more than it has been previously.

Postmodernism philosophy began in the late 20th century and brought skepticism of not just the establishment, but even objective reality. And in light of the litany of exposed abuses of power we have experienced culturally in even recent history (#metoo, sexual abuse in the Church, etc.), giving voice to the voiceless has certainly been advantageous. But it seems we have overcorrected from the modern era, with its emphasis on logic and reason, and now live in an age where objective reality and expertise mean very little. Any person’s opinion now holds equal footing with another’s, regardless of training, experience, or professional peer approval. In the vacuum of a calming voice of experienced reason, paranoia has spread like, well, a viral pandemic.

Obviously, the effects of postmodernism on our current cultural psyche is just one lens of many through which to see this problem; all issues are multi-causal and multi-maintained. But the objection to objective truth (in itself a self-refuting argument) offers a significant degree of explanatory power. When truth is simply relative to my own experience, feelings, or instinct, why should I trust someone else more than myself? If so, mommy-blogs have equal footing with medical advice from pediatricians, the guy at the gym knows as much about a healthy diet as a nutritionist, and my own opinion about what to do in court is equal to that of the experienced lawyer I (apparently) pay for me to disagree with. In such a society, a person’s claim to reality is no more valuable than the conspiracy theorist online. Who can I believe? Because expertise no longer matters, now everyone should share what they think.

This problem isn’t just about blue-collar workers questioning the highly educated. And I say that as a licensed clinical psychologist. I find myself frequently interacting with medical professionals who seem to think they are also political scientists, or school administrators who believe they understand the nuances of psychosexual development.

In the absence of objective truth, the only values left are momentary stimulation and “radical honesty,” even if one is being transparent about their self-destructive or selfish behavior. In this inverted moral landscape, national platforms are given to those most able to “tell it like it is” or whoever is most adept at insulting their neighbor. Moral leaders are propped up not because of the character they demonstrate, but because they are charismatic and snappy dressers. I am often left scratching my head at why I should care about your (insert TV personality) opinion to begin with? In what universe does 500k Twitter followers make someone’s opinion de facto helpful or worth sharing?

Of course, I am not the first to write about these things. I can remember listening to one of my Dad’s old Dennis Miller albums close to 25 years ago where one rant started with something like, “Everyone’s a skeptic, and if you don’t believe me, you just proved my point.” But my focus here is not on the broad shortcomings of postmodernity, rather on how the cultural assumption of thinking “the fountain of truth starts within myself” has contributed to the mass paranoia we now see related to vaccine hysteria, rampant conspiracy theories, etc. Overwhelming anxiety is as old as the amygdala, but fear has especially festered in today’s philosophical climate. Actually, there’s a cocktail of principal influences - one part narcissistic, postmodern culture all holstered with digital mega(cell)phones and one part shocked national psyche, living in the aftermath of shared, complex trauma.

Our country is currently behaving like a traumatized adolescent. We are self-destructive, generalizing towards threats, avoidant of vulnerability, polarized in our thinking, hypervigilant, and unable to rest. Cancel culture is a direct symptom of 9/11. The lived trauma of being attacked (read penetrated) on our home soil has left us stuck in fight-or-flight, and it seems we as a country are reacting to or recreating our shared woundedness on ourselves and the rest of the globe time and again. Add in a devastating market crash seven years later, and you’ve got a national nervous system whose startle reflex is reactionary to the nth degree. After the towers fell, we stood united against a common enemy and differences seemed momentarily forgotten. Now, the viral enemy is invisible to the naked eye, and it feels as if we have turned on ourselves instead.

Recently, I read through an old Family Handyman Magazine, circa '99. Inside was a section for people who sent in questions about house repair problems. In this issue, a new homeowner was curious about why his gutters seemed to be malfunctioning. He asked, “did the previous owner get lazy on the installation, or did he just goof?” I was gobsmacked with the editor’s response, “Sounds like he goofed, here’s how you fix the mistake…”. Here was a person giving the benefit of the doubt to a complete stranger. The inherent patience and trust granted for the intentions of someone they didn’t know couldn’t have been more in contrast to our current interpersonal atmosphere. See exhibit A, the comments section of almost every video on Youtube. The “all caps ad hominem” is truly in its heyday, and like a frothing crowd at the gladiator games, we are here. for. the. drama. If we’re all going to die, we hopelessly decide, at least let me be entertained while it happens!

Our lives are dependent on trust in one another. Specialization has made us capable of defeating cancers and stepping on the moon, but specialization is predicated on trusting our neighbor, whether they be local or abroad. Without trust in one another, we are left skeptical and suspicious. Add a dose of trauma to the concoction, and you’ve got fertile soil for conspiracy theories and doomsday paranoia. This crosses party lines too, by the way. I've ironically heard my liberal and conservative friends making the exact same fear-soaked prognostications about their opposition. "If (the other candidate) gets elected, it will be the end of democracy!"

So at the risk of becoming the harbinger of doom from your local oil change, let me offer some suggestions. Beware the pontifications of those who find meaning in teaching meaninglessness. Despite real, immense suffering and evil, there is still much, much good in the world as well. National traumas have affected civilizations since they existed, including the United States. It is easy to become historically myopic in a culture that enjoys so much comfort and convenience. And our news outlets are not helping. The 24-hour news cycle currently functions like fear-porn. Most cable news networks are designed to make you scared and then calm that fear. The warning alerts, the dramatic delivery, the leading questions. It can be a difficult addiction to break once you've been convinced the only way to stay safe is to tune in. The reality is, almost all of us have precious little control over what is happening in DC, the Middle East, or even our HOA. We need to take a deep breath, put down our cell phones, turn off the 24-hour news for a couple weeks, and go for a walk. Outside, preferably.

Secondly, the more you learn, the more you understand how complicated the world can be. If you’re about to share an opinion on something (especially online), consider for a moment if you’ve actually studied that thing at all, or are you just repeating a soundbite you heard? Have you read one book on the matter? How about three? Or ten? Have you considered the opinions of the two or three leading and disagreeing experts in the field? Seems exhausting, right? That’s my point. The human brain wants to make complicated things simple because it requires less energy and often helps us feel safe. When this happens interpersonally, by the way, it’s called “splitting” and is a pretty good indicator of a personality disorder. As a general rule of thumb, we could all benefit from listening twice as much as we speak (or type).

When we've been taught the fountain of truth is within all of us, there's little check against a roaming, anxious psyche. Realize that we do not need an opinion about most things, and that other, more informed people probably understand better than we do. Likewise, we need not mistake the sovereignty of the individual, and thus his right to voice his opinion, with the absurd notion that all truth is relative, i.e. that he should voice it. As social critic Os Guinness reminds us, "the right to believe anything is not the belief that anything you believe is right."

No, the answer isn't to blindly trust experts or authorities, but we do need to take a calming breath and realize that blind distrust gets us nowhere either, individually or collectively. We need to trust the educated with what they are educated with. My patients shouldn't ask me for financial advice because I'm not a financial expert, but they should hold my opinion on most psychological matters above their coworker, and themselves, for that matter.

Professionals must leverage personal relationships with those in their lives and communities to spread accurate information. Relying on the letters after your name to garner trust simply won't cut it anymore. If we are to find a way through these trying times, we must learn to reconnect. We need to have difficult conversations as directly as possible. Making eye contact and thinking before we speak. Debating on social media does not constitute real human connection.

Finally, when considering an alternate opinion to your own, ask yourself, "what evidence could I see that would make me change my opinion." If you cannot think of anything, or you realize there is simply nothing that will change your mind, then you need a cold shower.

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