8 Comments
User's avatar
Lucca Horta's avatar

Sad to read about your heart attack. I wish you a quick recovery.

Expand full comment
Matt Cook's avatar

Super good essay. Makes me think. So glad you are recovering. God bless you.

Expand full comment
Patrício C.'s avatar

Delightful to have you back! How's the recovery going?

Expand full comment
Carlos Ramalhete's avatar

Not that well, but I'm still here, so so far, so good.

Expand full comment
Vitor Bertalan's avatar

Another great essay, as usual. We sure missed your writings! My prayers for your speedy recovery.

Expand full comment
Bruno Valadao's avatar

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this topic Carlos! Really well written.

Expand full comment
V. Dominique's avatar

I realized years ago that the world is such a mess because people tend to ignore reality when it clashes with their ideology.

Best wishes and blessings for your recovery.

Expand full comment
Carlos Ramalhete's avatar

Not only their ideology: we, human beings, have brains that try to discern patterns all the time. It's great when it works, but it doesn't work always, and there are many kinds of false patterns that we keep believing in and thinking we find corroboration for all the time. It's often the easiest way to avoid realizing how miserable we really are in so many aspects. Ideologies are just the socio-political aspect of a much vaster phenomenon.

It varies in scope, but it's always present at some level: it can be our dellusions about that person we know for sure that certainly loves us, it can be our certainty that all other families are like ours, it can be in the way we deal with sport, food, music, or whatever, it can be in the way we live religion, or even in our religious beliefs (think about the young ladies in Mormon Fundamentalist or Salafist Muslim environments, to take extreme examples).

That's why finding the truth is one of the highest goals a person can have.

Expand full comment