Within 24 hours of the challenger space shuttle disaster a psychologist asked over 100 students where they were and what they were doing when they heard what had happened. About 2½ years later he asked them the same questions. Only 10% gave the same answers.
People will readily accept the possibility of someone else's memory being false, and at the same time have absolute faith in their own memory (and beliefs). Arrogance.
So basically my position is that I am capable of questioning my own beliefs (and regularly do!). The opinions and conclusions I come to are therefore better thought out and more likely to be correct than the vast majority of other people's opinions. This is a logical position to take. The arrogant ones are the religious people and the people who don't admit the possibility of their brain playing tricks on them.
I'm often accused of being arrogant in my dismissal of religious beliefs.
I'm sure you will agree that it would be possible to gather together a group (large – over a hundred, anyway) of people, of equal intelligence and education, who all have (equally strong) religious beliefs that are incompatible with the religious beliefs of everyone else in the room.
In this group of equals, religion makes each and every one of them stand up and try to shout over the top of everyone else, “I am right, and everyone else is wrong”.
So, I ask you, who is really the arrogant one – I, who understand that my brain can play tricks, and dispassionately analyse the evidence before coming to my opinion, or the person with religious beliefs?
Or maybe I'm just NPD ;) 
3 comments:
You are not an NPD. You are not a sociopath. You are truly one of a kind. You are a loner for a good reason. Life at the top of the triangle is not easy.
Your family can't relate to you, your friends can't relate to you. If you are a nerd and physically sluggish you'd have no conflict with the expectations and people would have treated you a certain way. But, you are also good looking and capable of taking on many fun activities.
So, you are one of a kind and will have a hard, very hard time finding someone who is intelligent, good looking, and every thing else you are. Lonely life is not easy. Too bad you can't sleep, you would if you had peace. Hard to find peace alone. Work harder at it, you may run into the right one in the process. You are a swan stuck in the middle of the ducks. Don't become a black swan. Stay white.
"So basically my position is that I am capable of questioning my own beliefs (and regularly do!). The opinions and conclusions I come to are therefore better thought out and more likely to be correct than the vast majority of other people's opinions. This is a logical position to take. The arrogant ones are the religious people and the people who don't admit the possibility of their brain playing tricks on them."
Man you just quoted the contents of my head. Very few people check themselves in this way - it is superior, i dont know what it means, but its true.
Princess J
I enjoy very much people complimenting on, and believing that, my best qualities are physical - a handsome athlete - when actually I my most cherished capability is my intellect.
This seems to be universal to some extent; if I were to chat up a beautiful girl I would not tell her she were beautiful - I would wait until she said something vaguely interesting and then reply "wow, that's a really interesting point - have you ever considered writing a book?"
I do make an effort to not be a loner, and have recently started dating again after a long time being single...
Did you see "the black swan" recently? :)
Finding peace may not be possible for everyone - there is only so much you can battle your innate neurophysiology.
nuts - I know! How dare they accuse ME of being arrogant! :p
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