The Currency of Belief

The cost of honesty is sometimes high. Especially when it means being honest with yourself.

Here’s the deal: you set the price. But: the market pressures you into setting the price on your own honesty.

Example: you decide you want to be honest about your religious beliefs.

You have come to realize, after serious study, thought and brutal self-honesty, that the beliefs you’ve held on to are now bankrupt. They used to be valuable to you. But now they are worthless. You know the honest thing to do is to dump them.

But the market demands, silently or otherwise, that you hold on to the beliefs you’ve held all these years. It says that even if they’ve lost value, it is only temporary and that, given time and patience, they will regain and even increase their value. The market says that you should not let them go, and that if you do, you will pay a very high price for it in the long run. Your gut tells you that the market is predominantly motivated by fear.

What are you going to do? Listen to the market? Or trust your own instinct and intelligence?