Post-Modernists tell us there are no facts, only competing narratives. But no one lives that way; we all behave as though some things are unambiguously "true." A critic asks "What happens if you jump off the George Washington bridge thinking you can fly?"
A real Post-Modernist answers: "Gravity is a narrative. It doesn't work if you don't believe in it."
But some conditions apply:
First, you must really believe gravity doesn't apply to you. Any doubt at all and you'll plummet. Belief is part of a feedback loop in which consciousness plays a part, but not the biggest part. Try it. Decide, as an act of will, to adapt a new belief; one that's wholly out of character for you.
Not so easy, is it? No wonder there are Calvinists (who believe it's predestination, not faith, that saves us).
Second, even when you succeed in changing your belief about gravity, no one else will know about it. You can levitate around your neighborhood as easily as Peter Pan - but you will be invisible. Your neighbors won't see you flying, because they don't believe you can.
The great "reform" movements of the 20th century were totalitarian because they had to be. Unfortunately for them, brainwashing takes tremendous effort, and even then it rarely works - obedience can be coerced, but not Faith.
If post-modernists are right, the question of whether you can learn to fly like Peter Pan depends on the answer to the question "is something like self-brainwashing possible?" And if it is, how does one do it?
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
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