Fight against illusions

The author of the article is Alexey Kharin .

Recently I read the book by A. V. Kurpatov “21 truthful answers. How to change your attitude to life” (M., 2015). The epigraph to this book could be a quote from Simeon of Athos: “It is not circumstances that kill a person, it is his thoughts that kill him.”

Well, the essence of the book is as follows: the dialogue of the “crazy mathematician” (the left hemisphere in the terminology of the author) with the “exalted artist” (the right hemisphere) gives rise to many illusions in our head, which can be reduced to four:

1) the illusion of danger;

2) the illusion of happiness;

3) the illusion of suffering;

4) the illusion of mutual understanding.

These illusions prevent us from living. The author interprets the concept of "illusion" as mistakes made by our consciousness in relationships and feelings.

Due to his exaltation, the “artist” dominates the “crazy mathematician”, and the latter very often agrees with his “friend” during the conversation, “feeding” him with the necessary “arguments” from the standpoint of reason.

A. V. Kurpatov's book reminds one thing: the representatives of subjective idealism (Berkeley, Hume and others) were right in their own way, that the world is a complex of sensations of perception. According to some subjective idealists, there is actually only one person in the world. Say nonsense? No. This is not fiction. This is a kind of philosophy of perception. This is how a person perceives the world around him. He sees only images, stereotypes everywhere. The human brain is often cluttered with a Quote and a Picture instead of a Text. Those. either in an image, or a phrase taken out of context, which for some reason stuck in my memory, shocked my imagination ...

Sometimes this happens with scientific work. Often a researcher evaluates the work of a colleague not by scientific characteristics, but precisely at the level - whether he likes it or not. In this regard, F. Nietzsche was also right, pointing out quite rightly that a person thinks in images, and not in logical concepts, schemes ....

Therefore, we can say that the main thing in life is the struggle with images that interfere with life. Hence the other question: how to deal with them. A. V. Kurpatov offers his own version.

We noted that he singled out four main illusions. Further in the book, the author subjects them to a thorough analysis. But thanks to what? A. V. Kurpatov immediately shares the concepts of “common sense” and “reasonable reasoning”. Very often, it is the latter that can lead us somewhere, fed by illusions. For example, the illusion of fear pushed for such "reasonable action" as the creation of nuclear weapons. And how else. There is a struggle for world domination, and from the point of view of "reasonable reasoning" it is necessary to create new types of weapons .... But there is no common sense here. He is absent. And so in other cases. Thanks to "reasonable reasoning", devoid of common sense, a person drives himself even deeper into the world of the subjective, moving away from reality ...

And only with the help of common sense can one cope with the four illusions that torment a person, like the four idols of F. Bacon. (By them, F. Bacon understood the idols of the market (words that clog our language), caves (subjective representations), theater (concepts) and clan (traditions that interfere with us, collective representations of people). These prejudices prevent a person as a whole from perceiving the world. ) Let us add here that F. Nietzsche, from whom A.V. Kurpatov, divided his work “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” into four parts.

The first illusion is the danger illusion . From childhood, all kinds of fears are instilled in us. Often this comes from the wrong approach of parents. Very often, in order to bring kids to obedience, parents begin to scare them with “bad uncles and aunts”, only sleeping and seeing how to take a naughty child with them. There are other tricks as well. For example, "abandonment", when parents hide from the baby, letting him feel all the "fear and awe." It is clear how the child grows up. What “human qualities” will a frightened child have who believes that no one needs him?

There is a sense in such techniques, the author believes, but the child also needs to explain possible behaviors in the event of a threat. You need to show the benefits of good behavior, good health, etc. We agree with the author that sometimes such “demarches” of a child are a kind of way to attract attention, because. he sees that in another way it is impossible to attract the attention of self-occupied parents.

In any case, after such “training by fear”, a person can be covered with illusions of fear, threat, hostile environment, chronic internal tension all his life. Moreover, the environment around us, the media, mass culture stuff us with scenes of threats and violence.

We will add here that this is especially true now of our Russia, when the media literally with some kind of frenzy savor the gloomy news of murders, fires, plane crashes, as if this is all that is happening in the world. Alas, Soviet news has gone into the distant past when they reported on achievements: schools and factories built, fields plowed, scientific discoveries, flights into space ...

Now a different informational reality is being formed, which feeds the “exalted artist” sitting in our heads. A person is already afraid of everything: getting hit by a car, falling and breaking his leg, being robbed, deceived, fired, abandoned by loved ones ...

Moreover, the work of both hemispheres (and the "artist" and "mathematician") leads to the fact that a person begins to fear not only a repetition of what happened to him, but also what can happen to any person. The right hemisphere draws a threat in every event, and the left hemisphere backs up this threat with arguments.

Moreover, man essentially deprives himself of the present and the future. In the present - fears, threats, experiences. Accordingly, the future is drawn as a kind of hopeless reality. The person already lives there. Ignoring the surrounding reality. The only thing that can threaten a person, according to A. V. Kurpatov, is accidents. But you can’t just protect yourself from them, you can’t predict them either.

However, a person is subject to the illusion of "forecasting" his future, which he endows with gloomy colors, using his subjective experience and knowledge of the misfortunes that occur with other people. However, the future is always new. And even if some troubles happen to a person, they will be based on new material. It is unlikely that a person will encounter something old, known to him. And trouble always comes from there. Where is it not expected.

It exhausts him mentally. If we analyze all the fears, then a person dies several times a day. Even if a tragedy happens to a person, he still finds the strength to survive it and move on.

There is nothing wrong with fear itself - it is a normal defensive reaction. Fear motivates us to take action. Another thing is when a person is constantly in a state of fear, worries. It exhausts him. Moreover, such fear is the fear of the unknown. Those. we don't even know what it could be. Moreover, even a good event can lead to bad results. And vice versa.

As a result, a person, guided by a sense of fear, often does not do what is necessary in a particular situation, makes mistakes. Again, people, according to the logic of Kurpatov, exhaust themselves with unnecessary fears and suspicions (if we are talking about interpersonal relationships), which further aggravates their situation. And all the forces go not to fight fears, but to strengthen them ...

Summing up the fears, the author again notes: we are often afraid not of what can really happen to us. Therefore, “believing your fears is pure madness. If we stop believing in them, then from this one step life can change in the most radical way and inevitably for the better.

What methods to combat this illusion does the author suggest. A. V. Kurpatov identifies several rules, which we will briefly discuss:

• replace illusion with reality - a person needs to realize the illusory nature of danger and pay attention to real life, not to look into the future;
• "to deceive the deceiver" - to act in a situation of fear as if this fear does not exist;
• play with time - try to imagine that the misfortune has already happened; look down on your problem;
• do not look for what will find us on its own: dangers do not come from where they are expected;
• not to lose the main thing - to decide on priorities - which is more important for us.

No less dangerous is the illusion of happiness. We are talking about our dreams about some illusory happiness that we will get sooner or later. We add here that this illusion was repeatedly criticized in classical literature. Suffice it to recall the story of N.V. Gogol "The Overcoat" or the short story of Akutagawa Ryunosuke, similar in meaning, "Sweet Potato Porridge".

On the one hand, in a person's life, already from childhood, there are many restrictions, difficulties, and somewhere there are fears and fears. On the other hand, from the same early childhood and then throughout life, society through the media, fiction, the same fairy tales, etc. creates the illusion of "happiness" - the happiness of love and family relationships, the happiness of friendship and mutual understanding (there will be a special discussion about this later). And it all starts with fairy tales with a happy ending, the author believes.

Let us add here that later a person seems to be waiting for either a “grandmother from Canada” with a large inheritance, or a “Rider on a White Horse”, or the expected “house by the sea”, and the like ... The left hemisphere cannot stop the excitement of the “accelerated artist”, which is leads to disaster...

An important role here is played by advertising, which so boldly came into our world 25 years ago, and promising that if we buy the product we are looking for, we will become happy (remember at least this one: “Water was tasteless, color and smell, until “Jupi” appeared ""). The main thing - "buy". It can be added here that another illusion is creeping in: "happiness is sold and bought for money."

Popular culture is no less zealous, through feature films that create movies with a happy ending, when lovers finally unite, "good" defeats "evil", etc. What to do: The right hemisphere of a person has a thirst to enjoy the triumph of justice, happiness. This is what the consumer industry is speculating on, creating a world full of illusions.

And people do not think about the fact that either the acquisition of some thing, or marriage, and the like do not remove difficulties. There are new difficulties, new challenges. And the rich also cry.

There are a number of aspects here. Firstly, what we consider happiness, in fact, may not be such for us. Secondly, a person is often not ready to spend on caring for a “happy acquisition” (for example, for a car, or children want to get a dog, but have no idea that the dog still needs care). Thirdly, a person sometimes dreams of mutually exclusive things, but in real life, not everything is compatible from what we would like to combine. Fourthly, we get used to the good too quickly and we always want what is not there. We are not interested in what is already there and we strive further.

As a result, a person gradually loses the illusion of happiness, it breaks, which leads to shocks, and even to the degradation of the personality ...

And here A. V. Kurpatov again offers several solutions:

• life in exchange for a fiction - a person should be engaged in current affairs, be happy here, and not build “castles in the air”;
• life inventory - think about what we have and what we are good at;
• be able to say "enough" - i.e. know the measure, speaking the language of the ancient Greeks;
• start from the end - think about what will happen when the “happy dream” comes true;
• one should not try to avoid the inevitable, and achieve the unattainable.

The third illusion is the illusion of suffering. We agree with the author that this is one of the most common illusions. According to the author, this illusion is the most expensive, and it can deprive us of a happy life.

I remember a parable in which the dog lies and whines all the time. When the owners ask why he is whining, they answer that he is lying on a nail and it hurts. And to the question: why does he not move to another place, they answer that it is convenient for him here.

The author rightly notes that from early childhood the role of the victim helps a person to get out of the water dry. Sometimes this is actually a very handy trick. For example, children understand that “suffering” can save them from suffering, and they do everything to pity adults who want to punish a negligent child. Or, with their suffering, they attract the attention of their parents.

But a person can “play too hard” and already throughout his life perceive himself as a victim. The feeling of "unhappiness" will intensify in such a person. Moreover, he will begin to blame those around him for all his suffering, complain that no one needs him. And as a result, he will really alienate all those close to him, making his life even more miserable.

In addition, such a "sufferer" turns into a passive subject and can do little. We can add here that he also complicates the life of those around him with his experiences, making it more unbearable. Other people, in addition, turn for him only into an object of consumption, more precisely, into an object for splashing out their emotions. No more.

Here the author slightly criticizes Russian culture, in which the spirit of compassion is widespread. We, unlike the West. According to the author, they are more accustomed to complaining to others. And in Europe, on the contrary, it is not good to flaunt one's suffering. If we had the same practice, then "we would have suffered to a lesser extent, and things would have gone better for us," the author concludes.

In principle, all our suffering is "compassion for oneself." The person closes on himself. Here again one can recall the patristic literature in which there was such an idea: a person is then unhappy when he thinks more about himself. In addition, the author warns: behind any of our suffering there is always either fear, or stupidity, or pain.

If because of fear, then this is an illusion, which has already been mentioned. If because of stupidity, then a person just needs to honestly admit his mistake and learn from it. And if suffering is due to pain, then it must be endured, endured. Suffering because of it is inappropriate. Fuss will only lead to increased pain. Moreover, pain is a sign of life.

And here the author also offers a number of rules related to the struggle against suffering:

• there is no meaning in suffering itself - if a person subjects his suffering to rational analysis, he will see it as absolutely empty and unnecessary;
• you never need to feel sorry for yourself;
• other people need us strong and not suffering;
• there is something behind any suffering - fear, pain or stupidity;
• happiness exists and it is necessary to nurture it, and not a feeling of suffering and uselessness.

The fourth illusion is the illusion of mutual understanding. It refers to our desire "for other people to agree with our opinion, listen to our arguments and start thinking like us." A person constantly wants to be agreed with him, to accept his opinion. And friendship, love, communication in general, he sometimes perceives as an agreement with his position. But here he is destined to fail.

Again, the author criticizes fairy tales, which, in his opinion, bring up a person from childhood in such an illusion. In fairy tales, princes and princesses who love each other understand each other without words. Certain illusions are also instilled by parental upbringing.

The illusion of mutual understanding is fueled by another thing: the certainty that we can be understood by other people, “and most importantly, that they are completely understandable and known to us for certain.” This is the main mistake, according to the author: we act based on our ideas about other people, about how they think.

Entering into interactions, we are already building a certain image of a person, and we think that he will act in accordance with our ideas. On the other hand, our behavior is sometimes a reaction to our assumption about what a person thinks about us. But after all, our interlocutor is a living person. Therefore, all our reactions, ideas can be wrong.

The specificity of the situation is also in the fact that a person often does not know himself, but already claims to understand others. How can you judge others without understanding yourself?

Even if the interlocutor agrees with us, then maybe he will perceive our position a little differently. Also with words. In the words that we pronounce, we can put a completely different meaning. For example, in the word "love". Each of our words has its own subjective experience, and the interlocutors translate it into the language of their life experience.

Each of the people lives his life, has his own experience, and from it he already perceives other people, their words, their life situations. What is a disaster for one (eg, being fired from a job) will not be so for another. But we want to be understood precisely on the basis of our experience. This is where conflicts and misunderstandings arise.

What are the ways to combat this illusion:

• you need to be able to say “stop” or “no” to your delusions and “yes” to common sense; the illusion of mutual understanding must be abandoned;
• it is necessary to remove the requirements in relation to other people, do not expect anything from them;
• it is necessary to recognize the right of another person to be himself, not like us, but completely different, with his own values, interests;
• need to do "self-reinforcement"; we rely on the support of others, so we must be able to appreciate our results, set feasible goals and achieve them - perhaps this will cause understanding from others;
• we need to be grateful to those who do not understand us “if we see their misunderstanding, it means that what is happening is not juice or fantasy, but real life. So, we live, we are alive!”

Separately, the author also highlights the fifth illusion - the illusion of love. But he does this already in the conclusion, and he himself admits that in this illusion the other illusions appear "in all their glory." Without these four illusions, “there would be no illusion of love, but there would be love,” the author rightly notes.

In general, a person must rid himself of illusions for real life. As long as we are full of illusions, then our joy will not be real, but illusory.

These are the main provisions of the book by A. V. Kurpatov. The book is written in a lively, vivid language, popular. In principle, the author outlined already known ideas. For example, something is also found in Orthodox patristic literature, or in literature in general.

But at the same time, the author adds a lot of his interesting thoughts, observations from practice (which also adorns the book - many life examples). One can agree with many of the author's ideas. Although some moments and cause criticism.

Firstly, one can argue with the author's negative attitude towards fairy tales. For him, they create a world of illusions. At the same time, it is known that fairy tales are an important way of understanding the surrounding reality.

Secondly, the author appeals mainly to reason. But how effective is it?

Thirdly, ignoring the spiritual realm. But a person consists of three elements - spirit, soul and body. And appeal to the spiritual level without the spiritual is ineffective. This makes (along with ignoring the spiritual sphere as a whole, including the world of fairy tales) the author's approach limited, incomplete... Other means are needed besides those offered by the author...

But in general, the book is useful for thinking about where the dialogue between the “exalted artist” and the “nutty mathematician” can lead, and how you can counter the negative consequences of such a dialogue.