3 September 2021

Simplistic thinking - are you an addict?

Welcome to Simplistics Anonymous, also known as SimpAnon.

You may have come to this page because a friend recommended us, or you may have been googling why you feel numb, bored or so disconnected from life. You may be wondering if there is an alternative to feeling that life is pretty flat. 

Well, it's possible you are addicted to simplistic thinking, without knowing it. This addiction is real, it's destructive, and it's disconnecting. 

Luckily, there is a solution. 

Part 1 on this page explains the appeal and dangers of simplistic thinking, and why people become addicted to it. Part 2 outlines the 12-step recovery program for people addicted to simplistic thinking. 

Simple or simplistic?

The words simple and simplistic sound similar, but their meanings are quite different.

Simple is a positive word meaning plain, easy, ordinary, straightforward, uncomplicated, unsophisticated. A simple solution to a problem is usually a good solution. 

Simplistic is a pejorative word meaning overly and misleadingly simplified. A simplistic solution to a problem is a bad solution because it fails to deal with the complexities and details of the situation. 

Simplistic ideas, slogans and messages are 'dumbed down', they trivialize the issue or avoid the core of a problem. Instead of summarising complex arguments about difficult topics, simplistic thinking avoids complexity, omits complicating factors, and ignores important details, resulting in a one-sided and partial explanation.

Simplistic thinking treats complex issues and problems as if they were simple when they are not. 

When simplifying is helpful, making life liveable

One vital human skill is our ability to filter information, to simplify what we perceive and experience. We need to do it to function at all!

text box with list of common sayings: A fool and his money are soon parted. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Beggars can’t be choosers. The best things in life are free. An idle brain is the devil’s workshop. The early bird catches the worm. Fortune favours the brave. All’s fair in love and war. Good things come to those who wait. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. A leopard can’t doesn’t change its spots. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Lemon Grad, https://lemongrad.com/proverbs-with-meanings-and-examples/
Our brains deal with the overwhelming complexity of the world that we perceive by identifying what's most important and filtering out everything else. For example, you can enter a restaurant and ignore all the details of the walls, floor, ceiling and most of the information about the furniture. Instead you focus on what's important: where your friend is sitting. 

We all deal with everyday complexity by removing it from our conscious awareness. 

We create mental shortcuts and mental patterns for dealing with common situations. We make and justify our decisions by following simple rules (e.g. beggars can't be choosers; if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

We need to simplify things to make life liveable. We all do it, but it's good to remember that. 

People are complex

The social world is complex; people are perplexing, understanding others can be hard. 

Text box, with long comment: In the 1960s, when mediator Adam Curle talked to Nigerian military General Yakubu Gowon (whose forces were killing hundreds of thousands of people), he chose to approach the General assuming he was wise and compassionate. Curle spoke to Gowon as if he was someone capable of caring about his enemies. Remarkably, Gowon’s forces did not engage in any future mass slaughter, and both sides of the conflict gradually changed how they acted. Curle wrote, 'If I act on the assumption that people, including you and me, have these capacities, those persons will manifest them.' Curle believed that what we think and expect about others can shift how they come to behave.
Just as we create mental shortcuts for dealing with the  practical aspects of life, we do the same for dealing with people. We have a strong tendency to see other people in overly simplistic categories - good vs bad people, smart vs dumb people, etc. These boxes imply that people are straightforward and never vary. It makes life easier; it reduces the anxiety that people might behave in ways we can't predict. It knocks us off base to think that a 'bad person' could do something good for someone. Or that a 'dumb person' might know something we don't. 

However, people never really fall into simple, narrow and fixed categories like good, evil, smart, dumb, helpful, lazy, etc. People are complex and contradictory. You and I are complex and contradictory. Other people can never be reduced to the simple categories we put them in. 

The categories are not real things - they are ideas, and they are often dangerous ideas. They set up negative expectations of other people, which as David Curle believes, can influence how they behave. 

These categories are another example of simplifying thinking that cuts out detail, complexity and contradiction. 

They can also cut us off from other people.

The world seems just too much

text box with ORIGINAL Mencken quote: “Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.”
In contemporary society, we are constantly bombarded with information about complicated and distressing issues - incarceration rates, juvenile crime, child abuse, war, domestic violence, profiteering, economic policies, and more. Experts and scientists offer some answers, but they are increasingly complex, require time to understand and implement, and too technical for most people to understand. 

So, we resort to our age-old strategy - we ignore or remove the details that all that the experts and the authorities tell us. We reject that overwhelming complexity; it makes us feel bad. 

When we start to feel anxiety or fear about not understanding, when we feel uncertain about the craziness and dangers in the world, we rush to soothe or remove those feelings immediately. We want to find a cause, an answer, right away. And we want to understand the problems we see, so we can deal with them, and stop our uncomfortable feelings. 

Unfortunately, quick answers to complex problems are rarely accurate. So, many of us jump to quick but inaccurate answers. They seem to explain things, but best of all, they soothe our fears.

This all leads to a belief that any worthwhile solution to a situation must be simple.

It's all about answers that make us feel better. Answers that take the edge of feelings we don't want to feel and avoiding thoughts we don't want to think.

Answers from others, simple but wrong 

The facts of nature and of life are more likely to be complex than simple. People are complicated and contradictory. It's hard to really understand the complexity of the many problems of contemporary life.

We look to experts, teachers or political leaders to provide answers to society’s problems. But their thinking is just as susceptible to overly simplifying complex problems. 

Broad political ideologies (e.g. conservatism, liberalism, anarchy, communism) work to engage people, provide answers to life's fundamental issues, and engender trust and belonging, but they all involve simplifying complex details about people and about the world, which means they are very often wrong. 

Politics is full of quick, simplistic - and wrong - 'solutions' to the many awful and 'wicked' problems of humanity. 

Cartoon with line of people coming up to a sign that says ANSWERS and most going to the 'simple' fork in the road, and a minority going to the 'complex' fork in the road.

In the face of complexity we don't understand, it's all too easy to turn to people who promise solutions, to accept sometimes extreme black and white thinking about the world, to jump on answers we find appealing because they tell us we are okay and we are right. But most importantly, we want answers that make us feel better - getting rid of anxiety and fear, often replacing these emotions with anger and resentment targeted at identified culprits for the problems.

Those emotions are easier to deal with. They drive outrage and actions like protesting. It feels good to be doing something. 

Why simplistic thinking is all too human

We all use simplistic thinking; it's a very human thing to do. It is even helpful at times to cut out detail or contradictions, so we can take rapid action to avoid danger and make decisions.

When humans face anything overwhelming or frightening, it triggers our primeval survival instincts - flight/fright/freeze. These automatic responses served prehistoric humans well most of the time. Their problems were usually straightforward, if terrifying (that lion might eat me) and the solutions were usually simple (run, push the burning stick at it).  Quick responses allowed our ancestors to live to face another day.  

Text box Auden quote: The state of enchantment is one of certainty. When enchanted, we neither believe nor doubt nor deny: we know, even if, as in the case of a false enchantment, our knowledge is self-deception.” W.H Auden, A Certain World, 1970
Today, we are faced with many things that overwhelm and frighten us - looming climate catastrophe, political polarisation, loss of status as society changes, the march of authoritarianism, fear that an evil Elite controls our every move, entrenched war and violence, domestic violence, racism, pandemics and incurable diseases, extremism. These problems are not straightforward or simple. 

But, because we are human, we often react to these things instinctively and quickly, seeking an immediate answer. In this way, overly simplistic thinking provides quick answers that allow relief from the anxiety and fear. It gives back a sense of control and certainty, even if we still have 'enemies' to deal with.

Simplistic thinking provides what psychologists call the 'illusion of explanatory depth'. We are certain that we understand other people and the world, when in fact we do not have a clue - it's an illusion, self-deception, a state of false enchantment, according to Auden. This flawed thinking then underpins our decisions, judgements and actions. 

We cling desperately to our ideas about the world to avoid the rush of anxiety and fear that would accompany letting go of simplistic thinking. 

We accuse others of lying; we avoid contact with people who might challenge our thinking. We close our minds to information that could possibly reveal our ideas to be wrong or false, to be simplistic. We come to rely on simplistic thinking to feel okay, to numb the fear and anxiety of living, to take the edge off. 

It becomes an addiction. We insist on simplistic thinking and simplistic answers purely to avoid the uncomfortable feelings that might come from thinking about the world with open eyes. 

How can someone be addicted to simplistic thinking?


Small child covering face with eye peeking out, faces seems afraid
Simplistic thinking is naturally very appealing as we grapple with the complexity of living: it gives us an feeling of certainty, safety, strength and of being right. It takes the edge off all the unpleasant emotions related to being overwhelmed, of not understanding, of being vulnerable, of being uncertain. Again, we all do that to some extent.

However, it can become an addiction when we compulsively cling to simplistic ideas despite contradictory information. It can become an addiction when we cannot even consider that another person might see things differently from us. We cling desperately to our ideas about the world to avoid the rush of anxiety and fear that would accompany letting go of our simplistic thinking. We accuse others of lying; we avoid contact with people who might challenge our thinking. We close our minds to information that could possibly reveal our ideas to be wrong or false, to be simplistic.

From a medical perspective, an addiction features the compulsive use of a rewarding substance or activity despite the subsequent adverse consequences. It is often considered a brain disease.

An addiction to simplistic thinking might 'reward' us by making us feel better in the short term, but it can lead us to self-defeating, self-limiting and even self-destructive actions. It can be dangerous (see below).

From another perspective, Brené Brown suggests that addiction is chronically and compulsively numbing and taking the edge off unpleasant feelings. Some feelings we commonly try to avoid are the fear of being vulnerable, fear of not understanding, fear of being wrong, and fear of being and showing hurt. We use alcohol, shopping, gambling, and even just being super busy all the time to 'take the edge off.'

Like other addictions, an addiction to simplistic thinking numbs any number of unpleasant emotions. But you can't numb emotions selectively. If we constantly try to take the edge of negative feelings like anxiety and fear of vulnerability, we also tend to numb positive emotions like awe, satisfaction, compassion, etc. It makes life simpler, but it makes life flat too. 

Addiction to simplistic explanations for complex situations allows us to hide from the messy reality of our lives, so we skate over the surface of the possibilities of living. Then we turn to whatever can create excitement - shopping, 'reality' TV, jet skis, gossip, foaming, drugs, obsessive collecting, and other forms of consumption and thrill seeking.

Seeking excitement to fill the emotional void can turn into an addiction too. 

An addiction to simplistic thinking is dangerous

Text box with definition of Sonder - the realisation that everyone else has a rich and complicated inner life as you.
Source: Quote Fancy
It wouldn't be such a problem to use simplistic thinking if we realised what we were doing. If we thought to ourselves: I can't handle that complexity right now, but I know it's there. If we made decisions with awareness that we might not fully understand the situation, but we do the best we can. If we reflected on our own rich complexity and contradiction, and acknowledged that everyone else - everyone - is the same. If we remained open to new information and other perspectives. If we could live with the idea there are no answers to some problems.

But we rarely do. Too many of us engage in compulsive short term, illusory, but emotional rewarding simplistic thinking, and we ignore its adverse consequences. Taking the edge of our feelings is more important than any negative impacts of our thinking. 

It can get ugly. 

An addiction to simplistic thinking leads to the 'dark side' of moral conviction: degrading and excluding other people,  imposing our own black and white thinking on others, conflicting with (or even killing) anyone who disagrees. It can result in atrocities such as lynching and suicide bombings. The furious and sometimes brutal defence of unexamined simplistic ideas leads to the polarising of society.

But it also stymies and limits the addict's life. The need to cling to simplistic thinking can result in impoverished emotional lives and disconnection from people and opportunities for personal growth.  It can get in the way of being authentic, emotionally honest, feeling connected to the natural world, and even having a sense of being worthwhile. 

The person addicted to simplistic thinking will do anything to take the edge off the anxiety and fear of looking at the world as it is. 

So, are you ready?

Text box: “Above all, remember that complexity arises from the richness of interconnections between things. To ignore the wider context, to fail to consider the side effects of actions and ideas, is to do so at our peril.” David Green Professor of Information Technology Monash University, The Conversation, undated
If you have an addiction to simplistic thinking, it doesn't mean you're stupid or foolish; it means you're human in all the ways mentioned above. You have been trying to find answers and make your way through life, just like other people. For you, though,  not being able to understand our complex world is often just way too scary. 

Recovery from addiction is not a journey to take on your own; you will need the support of a skilled therapist. However, you can benefit from reading Part 2 which explains the twelve steps involved in recovery from addiction to simplistic thinking.

If you feel ready to face reality more honestly, let go of (some of) your illusions, experience the discomfort of complexity and contradiction, and embrace the fullness of living in an amazingly rich and rewarding world - then read on. 

You can recover. 

Disclosure

I just really wish there were a program called SimpAnon. Addiction to simplistic thinking - or at least a fierce resistance to entertaining complex ideas - is in plague proportions. We sure need a treatment or a cure.

Instead, this is just a blog post. It was intended to be humorous, but this is a serious issue. 

When I think too much about the widespread addiction to simplistic thinking and all its negative implications, I get depressed about humanity.

I might need to see a therapist. 


Reference List 

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1 comment:

  1. Wordly Explorations2 October 2021 at 21:35

    This article was rewritten on 2 October after a comment that suggested it was condescending. Great to get that feedback; I can see how that might have come across, but was not my intention at all. I hope this rewrite has clarified the difference between what we all do - simplifying and simplistic thinking - and what I am suggesting is analogous to an addiction - relying on simplistic thinking to feel okay and damaging others with this 'need'. I should not try to be funny I think.

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