“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

BELIEFS: Perspectives with little fact or knowledge.

HOW WE ACQUIRE BELIEFS: Through authority, intuition, observation, or making it up as we go.

HOW WE DISCARD BELIEFS: Perpetual gathering of facts, assembling sets of knowledge, and accepting that we may have been very wrong about something.

THE DEADLIEST BELIEF: Aside from blind faith, a believable superstition.

What does it say about the human condition that in the 21^st century we still uncritically adopt beliefs without the benefit of facts or knowledge?

It means we want to get through our day, week, month, year and life without adding to our load endless rounds of research, becoming a master of all sciences, and evolving into know-it-all pains-in-the-arse.

It means we lack the capacity to think through every problem lobbed at us, the number of which grows exponentially with knowledge (how many of you could debug an app on your phone, eh?).

It means we except a lot of possible slop in the decisions we make because the investment for perfect decisions is too high. As long as we don’t go broke or die, we are doing OK.

It means that beliefs are normal and to a degree efficient.

But it also means we are exploitable. Enterprising marketers can plant a belief into your noggin with a slick television advertisement and extract your kid’s college fund for the right trinket. A devious propagandist can make you want to believe that a political party will adroitly pull the levers of power for your benefit (when it is likely only for their benefit).

If this missive has had any purpose, it was to expose you, a common human, to common human processes. And in doing so, show you how you come to believe what you believe, and why you might want to stop.

But also, it shows where you are most vulnerable. Ask yourself this one question every day: Why do I believe thus-and-such and should I stop? If you cannot quickly answer that, this is a point of attack for marketers and propagandists. For the next week be aware of any mention by others about this belief on which you are vulnerable and note how you emotionally responded. If you had an explainable unemotional response, then someone on Wall Street, in Washington D.C., or a newsroom just had their way with you.