You Reap What You Sow: Why Do We Assume the World Is Fair?
Villains always lose, and good people win — everyone gets what they deserve. This is the common message of many novels, movies, and comic books, and it may be tempting to apply the same cliché to the real world. For example, if you study hard, you’ll get a high-paying job, and if you don’t, it means that you just didn’t put in enough effort. It may seem like the world is a fair place, in which any action has a predictable consequence. The reality, however, is much more complicated.
Natural, An appeal to nature
Organic products are expensive. Manufacturers claim that they are better for you than regular products because, after all, nature provides what’s best for us. We would be stronger and healthier if only we would stick to all things natural: organic makeup, organic food, cyanide… Wait, what?
Why It’s So Hard to Go against the Grain?
Sometimes we do something just because everyone else around us is doing it. We buy a new video game because our friends are obsessed with it or we make a TikTok account to make sure we understand our classmates’ references. Or we suffer through a dull, drawn-out movie that everyone else, of course, has already seen and loved. What is this strange force that makes us copy the actions of those around us?
Hiding From Us
Whenever something happens in the world, there is always someone to blame. And if this “something” is on a global scale, then it obviously didn’t happen without some kind of conspiracy! Are doctors advising you to get vaccinated? They want to cash in on vaccine sales, of course! Man walked on the Moon? It was a hoax! And worldwide surveillance? We are all in danger…until we turn on our common sense and start to think critically.