My short answer to this question is…everything’s an opinion! Okay good night.

But seriously, one of my favorite philosopher/comedians of all time is the late Robert Anton Wilson. I think I first stumbled onto his videos in 2010. When I did, he made complete sense to me. This video convinced me to take everyone’s opinion less seriously and not to believe in facts any more:

He talks about the idea called “E prime”. It is the idea that using the word “is” is ridiculous, haha. Everybody sees the world through the scope of their own past experiences, fears, dogmas, etc. So when someone claims something as fact, it is only a fact to them, not to me.

This seems to be the case even for scientific “laws”. I was having this conversation with somebody at a bar a few days ago. I asked, “over human history, which scientific laws have been proven to be false.” My answer was, “all of them!”

Given infinite time in the future, there will probably be no scientific laws of today left standing. This is how I interpret the E prime way of talking and thinking.

It is difficult, but I have been trying to limit my thinking in terms of absolutes. Humanity, the world, and the universe are far too complex. I change my mind about major topics every day. I guess I am “pro flip-flop”.

I try to get my writings to stand back from dogmas and the opinions of others. I consider them, and weed out what makes the most sense to me to share them, but I try not to let them rule me.

I realize that my view of the world is unique from the other billions of people that inhabit the planet. Now, I try to think in terms of “appears to me”, “seems to me”, or “based on my experiences”, etc.

That’s just my opinion, though. Have a great one.

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