Mindset
Clarity is a Radical Act
“In a culture fueled by burnout, a culture that has run itself down, our national resilience becomes compromised. And when our collective immune system is weakened, we become more susceptible to viruses that are part of every culture because they’re part of human nature – fear-mongering, scapegoating, conspiracy theories, and demagoguery.”
-Arianna Huffington
I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated with the state of the world lately. Maybe you have too. It’s hard not to be when there’s a constant stream of noise—politics, opinion, outrage—buzzing in the background of our daily lives. Here in Canada, we’re deep in a federal election campaign. The U.S. is in another cycle of political chaos. And around the globe, conflict and division are seemingly everywhere. Whether it’s right in your face or humming quietly in the background, the noise is always there.
And it’s making me think a lot about how we got here—not just as a society, but as individuals.
I’m not interested in getting into politics, per se. What I want to reflect on is something more fundamental: human nature—how we behave, how we believe, how we process what’s happening around us.
The Legacy of the Pandemic
The pandemic was a massive turning point. It laid bare so much of what lies underneath the surface for all of us. Our reaction to threat—whether it’s imposed, perceived, or real—kicked off a cascade of internal reflection (and in many cases, emotional chaos). We were forced to confront uncertainty and loss of control. Some of us coped in healthy ways; others struggled. But no one came out unchanged.
What emerged for me was a stronger focus on values: What do I really believe in? Where did those beliefs come from? And how do I navigate a world where truth feels increasingly subjective?
The Stories We Live By
Something I’ve spoken about before on the podcast, and written about in this blog is the idea that everything we believe is a story. That story is shaped by our experiences, our interpretations, and the societal or cultural forces around us.
This idea is explored deeply in The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. He talks about the “domestication” of the human being—how we’re born as blank slates, but gradually shaped and influenced by parents, culture, religion, expectations, and societal norms.
That shaping isn’t all bad. If done well, it gives us moral grounding and a framework for making decisions. But it can also be restrictive. Too many rules, too much imposed expectation, and we lose the ability to think critically or live authentically. Sometimes we end up successful by external standards, but disconnected internally.
The truth is, we’re all walking around with these invisible scripts—crafted by where we came from, who raised us, what we were taught. And unless we consciously choose to examine those scripts, they continue to drive the way we see the world.
A Predictive Brain in a Noisy World
From a neuroscience perspective, the brain is a prediction machine. It constantly tries to forecast outcomes based on past experiences to keep us safe. That’s useful in many ways—spotting danger, avoiding mistakes—but it also makes us prone to bias and assumption.
When our brain doesn’t have all the information, it fills in the blanks. And too often, those blanks are filled by societal narratives, historical records written by the “winners,” or curated media sound bites.
That’s not to say history or education is meaningless. Far from it. But our understanding of the world is always filtered through someone’s lens. And we rarely stop to ask whose lens it is—and whether that lens serves truth, or just comfort.
Do You Trust Others… or Yourself?
I once asked sports psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais a question I often reflect on: Do you trust people until they give you a reason not to, or do you distrust people until they earn your trust?
His answer was simple but profound: Do you trust yourself?
That hit me. Because self-trust is foundational. If we don’t trust our own values, our ability to discern, or our moral compass, how can we expect to trust anyone else?
A friend once told me that the definition of success is when your behaviors match your values. That resonates deeply. But it presupposes that you know your values—and that you live by them. Many of us don’t. Many of us inherited values we never questioned.
Governance, Democracy, and Distrust
This brings me to governance. Why do we have it? Ideally, it’s to provide a framework for society—agreed-upon rules that help us coexist. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than chaos. And in democratic systems, the idea is that we have agency to influence leadership and policy. We hold our leaders accountable with our votes.
But increasingly, that accountability feels like a myth. Government has become bloated, inefficient, and in many cases, co-opted by corporate interests. Capitalism, while a driver of innovation and freedom, has blurred the lines. When power, money, and influence become the priority, trust erodes. And when people feel they’ve lost agency, they seek it elsewhere.
Enter conspiracy theories. They’re not just about delusion—they’re often about disillusionment. A response to feeling ignored, lied to, or left behind. We’ve become a society of storytellers, crafting narratives to make sense of a system that no longer feels trustworthy.
Media, Social Media, and the Death of Shared Truth
The media used to be a source of information. Now it’s a source of opinion. In the race for ratings and revenue, news has become entertainment, tailored to confirmation bias. Add social media to the mix, and suddenly we’re all broadcasters—amplifying whatever narrative reinforces our worldview.
We’ve lost the shared center. There’s no common ground for truth anymore. Every voice has a platform, but not every voice has accountability. Algorithms feed us what we already believe, not what we need to hear.
And now AI is here—an intelligence that can generate opinions, perspectives, even manipulate media. Its value lies in its ability to pull from countless sources and synthesize information, but it will only be as unbiased as the data it draws from—and the humans programming it.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
We’re in a strange place right now. The ground is shifting. The rules are changing. And certainty feels further away than ever.
But maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Maybe, in the absence of certainty, we’re being invited to go deeper. To question what we believe. To listen more, shout less. To build self-awareness and recognize the influence of our own stories. To seek truth, not in headlines or hashtags, but in human conversation, lived experience, and rigorous inquiry.
The fifth agreement from Ruiz’s work is: Be skeptical, but learn to listen.
I think that’s where we start.
We need to be more curious. Ask better questions. Challenge our own beliefs—not to become contrarians, but to become better humans. We need to sit in rooms with people who think differently from us and not see them as enemies. We need to relearn how to listen, debate, and grow without dehumanizing one another.
That’s one of the reasons I started the podcast in the first place. I wanted to be a better listener. A better gatherer of perspective. I’m still learning. Still working on it. But I believe that’s the real task of our time: to become better consumers of information and more thoughtful stewards of our own beliefs.
Because in a world of noise, clarity is a radical act.
So maybe instead of yelling at the TV—or each other—we start asking harder questions of ourselves.
What do I believe? Why do I believe it? And what if I’m wrong?
