Bias,

 

All in-group bias, the tendency to favor one’s own group over other groups, is maintained by what I call Disembodied Language (DL). Therefore, it is not our in-group bias – which, of course, is merely a product of our usual way of talking – which affects our perception and behavior towards others, so that we give preferential treatment to the members of our own group, while excluding other groups, but it is our DL, or the language of the group or the other. In Embodied Language (EL), by contrast, we speak the language of our own individuality. However, historically, our own EL has always been impaired or mostly made impossible by our own conditioning history with DL. If we want to step out of our what is believed to be genetically-inherited in-group bias, we must end our own DL, so that we can have EL.  

 

There is no such a thing as cognitive bias, because language isn’t a covert, but an overt phenomenon. The only way anyone can refer to or know about such an imaginary, therefore, problematic concept, is by speaking, listening, writing or reading. We  should agree with this, in the same way, that we can now agree that diseases aren’t caused by evil spirits, but by bacteria, yet unconscious DL, prevents this.

 

Once you start with one lie, you inevitably are going to come up with more lies, to support the initial lie. The initial lie of DL – which, as I have stated, is the socially coercive language of the group – is that we have internal language, covert, inner, silent speech, thoughts, a mind, memories, associations, ideas, a behavior-controlling, rambling, nagging, criticizing, self or inner being, but also, of course, out-group bias, ethnocentricity, racism, etc., etc. Without ever noticing it, we have, ever since we became verbal, continued with our version of DL, which is based on our belief, that the presumably positive behaviors of the ingroup as well as the negative behaviors of the outgroup, are stable characteristics. In other words, we have always justified our biases, with our need to, supposedly, make sense of the world. The fact is, however, DL doesn’t allow us to make any sense of ourselves, as it doesn’t permit us, to talk correctly about our own individual behavior. In DL, our own experience takes the back-seat to group-behavior, in other words, in DL we are biased against ourselves.   

 

Our EL is going to debunk all the lies, which have endlessly been purported by our DL. This is, indeed, a very personal matter, in which we own up to our own pain, misery, failure and shame. Anyone who is posturing, virtue-signaling and pretending with any kind of so-called moral high ground, is going to be exposed, for the way in which they have lied about themselves. It doesn’t matter, whether we cover it up with impersonal professionality, our inhuman ethical stance, our noisy amusement, our coercive, presumably, non-biased science, our disrespectful, disgusting, violent holier-than-thou religions, our boring, nasty, stupid humor, our cringe-worthy and utterly meaningless politics, our hair-splitting and competitive psychology, our superficial, unhealthy commerce, our ugly art or our rotten culture. When we are going to have EL, we will be against all of it.

 

The chaos and conflict we witness everywhere around the world, where tyrannical governments are no longer able of controlling and oppressing – with armies and technologies – the dissatisfied, revolting masses, is caused by one thing only: DL is on its deathbed. Either we are going to stop our DL and acknowledge, that we can and really need to communicate in an entirely different way or we are going to escalate our conflicts further and end up in worse and worse situations, which we ourselves have created, with how we deal with our language. 

 

There is no such thing as cognitive bias or so-called  groupthink. It is always the individual, who has the desire for harmony in any group and, likewise, it is always someone, who perceives him or herself to be a more important individual than others, who insists on conformity to the group, which means, that one is not allowed to follow one’s individual inclinations. How do we find out about all these fabrications? We are being told, we listen to, and then, we avoid punishment by doing as we are told. We keep to the rules, which are written, as law and enforced by enforcers of the law. The judge reads the verdict, we read from the ten commandments, we study the literature, and we quote only peer-reviewed written words. Moreover, we disparage our spoken interaction, since, presumably, the printed words are more important. This talk about covert cognitive information processing nonsense, we refer to as thinking, is an oral sleight of hand trick. Whenever we cancel what someone says or writes, we couldn’t care less about what he or she thinks, as we are only keen to prevent his or her overt words and sentences, which can be read or heard. 

 

It is interesting to note, so-called groupthink always is believed to occur, when there is a time constraint and individuals put aside personal doubts, so that a project can move forward. What is indicated, is the pressure, tension and fear, that is always involved in coming from an individual perspective, while for the most part, everyone always agrees with DL and thus goes along with the majority. Even if people may seem to have different opinions within DL, they still continue with it, but never with EL. In other words, what is called groupthink is DL. This so-called herd mentality is the inevitable effect of the completely ignored reality, that we don’t take the time to talk.

 

As we have heard already million times, so-called groupthink also often seems to occur, when one, presumably, important and powerful individual, a so-called leader, dominates the decision-making process, thus leading others to follow in his or her footsteps. Here we are talking about the infamous bandwagon-effect. This ridiculous concept would have us believe, that our brains tend to conclude that something must be desirable, because other people desire it. How else would we desire it, if it wasn’t for the fact, that someone was saying it and others were hearing it, when someone was writing it and others were reading it? There is absolutely no such mysterious, innate brain-desire for what others desire, as it is all a matter of how we use language.

 

When we talk about the tendency of individuals, to refrain from expressing doubts and judgements or disagreeing with the consensus, we are, without even realizing it, always talking about the difference between DL and EL. DL is the language of the group, while EL is the language of the individual. I know, it is hard to believe, but I don’t ask you to believe me, I simply ask you to consider, that I am right. While millions of people have lived and died in Western civilizations, where people have acquired – after a lot of struggle and sacrifice – individual rights, there has never been a clear understanding or definition of EL, the much-needed language of the individual. If people in Western societies continue to remain unconcerned about EL, as they currently still clearly are, then, in one way or another, DL – as it is already doing – will overrule all our individual rights and along with it, there will be a return to the dark ages. More than ever, there is a great need for brave bias, which represents our individual EL.