Why is it so important for people to feel that they are right?

Question

It seems that most people invest a lot of energy in trying to be right. Does it really make us happy or feel good about ourselves and other people? Does it make us feel secure in an insecure world? If you could be right but in the processes alienate all of your family and friends, or be wrong and have loving relationships, which would you choose?

Answer 1

People who are unrealistic and live by principles they know are rooted in an incorrect perception of the world around them, feel the absolute need to be "right" all the time, otherwise they feel that their life lived by these incorrect principles has been a waste of time. If people live their lives honestly, without any pretention, trying to be the best people they can, then they can admit when they're wrong, or admit that they don't know whether they're right or not, but that they have their opinions and morals, and they feel right about them.

I think that when people have the need to feel absolutely right, this is based on their own deep-rooted insecurities. It's a case of sticking the fingers in the ears, and singing "I can't hear you" over and over. These people will never learn or grow, or be true to themselves, because they never let anything in which doesn't back up their belief system. As a wise man once said "there's nothing more dangerous than someone who believes himself to be absolutely right".

Quite often the things that people state they "know" for a "fact" are, and can only be described as beliefs and opinions. The fact that they need to feel these things are absolutely 100% true, shows that they wouldn't go along with them unless they had convinced themselves or been brainwashed into believing them to be fact (ie evangelical Christians, Mormons included). They've opted out of the real world in exchange for an artificial sense of belonging to something "better". This is very sad, and makes it very difficult for them to have any kind of honest and real relationship of any kind with anyone not similarly brainwashed, as if they can't convince them to share in their delusional fantasy world, they see them as a threat, and either keep them at arm's length, or cut them off completely (in the nicest possible way, or so they think).

Answer 2

It's not a bad thing to want to be right. It's a good thing. The wish to be right can impel people to check their facts, to test their ideas when practicable, to consult reputable (preferably peer-reviewed) sources of information, and to be prepared to change one's opinions upon discovering errors in them.

But the desire to be right can be corrupted, usually with egoistic wishful thinking. Someone with a corrupted desire to be right insists that his preferences in belief are what the truth really is. Once someone takes that position, he often becomes delusional about it, and there may not be any effective way to reason with him.

Sometimes two groups with different sets of delusions fight about which set of delusions is true. Once in a while deluded people go on a crusade to convince others, who really do have the truth on their side, to abandon delusions that they do not have.

Liberals (and, more generally, leftists) are frequently afflicted with a corrupted desire to be right. That's where their doctrine of "racial equality" came from. They are often delusional because they confuse the proper relation between perception, reason, and moral sense.

Carefully thoughtful people, examining the world, use those faculties in that order:

(1) perception, to see what is around them,
(2) reason, to judge what it means, what they're up against, and
(3) moral sense, to decide what they should do about it.

Liberals habitually reverse the process. They first use their moral sense to judge what "ought" to be true. Then they reason that because things "should" be that way, they ARE that way. Then they apply that judgment to their perceptions, which is why liberals so often ignore facts, disregard statistical evidence, and wave away the indications that their social policies have been failing for decades to do what they were promised to do.

On the other hand, it benefits us all to check what we believe against scientific evidence - REAL scientific evidence, not merely more self-contrived delusions about what scientific evidence ought to be.

The world is actually a place less forgiving of incorrect beliefs than our technological niche might lead some of us to believe. There are enemies out there, some of them are hominds, some are other animals, and some are elemental forces of nature. We have needs for which provision must be made, lest we die. Most people will comfort themselves with social amenities, such as friends and loving relationships. However, unless someone values the truth (about the world around him) more highly than these relationships, there will be no one on guard when the enemies attack. Someone must accept guard duty.

Answer 3

The true answer is, No one is truly right and no one is truly wrong. it is a matter of perception, just like good and evil or beautiful or grotesque. to one person the answer may be clear but to another the answer may be completely opposite.

Man fights for what he believes is true because he has made his perception part of himself, so he is not just defending his thoughts he is defending his being.

to bad only a few people will scroll down and read this, but hey that's human nature.

Answer 4

Right Or Happy? I would rather be Happy.
Wanting to be right, is living in the illusion of your 'ego' world.
Wanting to be happy, is living in the reality of your Higher conciousness.
I could definitely recommend some wonderful books on this matter

Answer 5

being right doesnt matter to me probably because most times i am but i know how to gracefully accept being wrong....if i am wrong i will say i am wrong with no hesitation and no regret ....the reason for it being so important for people to feel that they are rightis because noone likes to be wrong

Answer 6

My friend was willing to lose his daughter, rather than accept her living with her boyfriend. He was right and he was miserable.

Answer 7

One word. Ego.

Answer 8

The truth is ugly indeed.

Answer 9

It's a matter of pride.