Solipslipsm
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, or maybe it was a brown wood -- hard to say...
Solipsism is a solace. That’s why it’s worth defending, halfheartedly. To summarize the path to getting there:
You are taught to doubt something which is essentially true. This is easy, because every idea has gray areas, misconceptions, debates. It doesn’t really matter what the something is — wherever your weakness is. Doubt needs a starting point.
You internalize that doubt is the virtue of virtues.
You’re taught to doubt everything, even (especially?) the deepest and most obvious truths. Exhibit 1: all fashionable western beliefs of today.
Since no one can live in complete doubt for long, you’re introduced to established truths based on harebrained, nonsensical concepts of what counts as “evidence” — to replace the intuition you were born with.
As an aside, let’s not abnegate responsibility. No one forced you down this path. You buy into #1-4 of your own free will, just like you drank the last beer in the six pack of your own free will. Your subsequent actions were stupid and less free, but it’s still your own fault.
You buy into #1-4 because any mix of: (a) you want to be sophisticated / high status, (b) it conveniently justifies a lot of indulgences e.g. sexual revolution; (c) habits are hard to break. It makes a lot of sense, but it’s your own fault.
Having taken care of the responsibility issue, let’s meander on to the end of the path, the two possibilities at the fork after #4:
The matrix. You accept the pronouncements of truth from the Economist, which is shorthand for the corporate-academic-medical-educational-media-governmental complex and its affiliates (i.e. those ostensibly in opposition to — but in reality simply amplifying — the pronouncements of the complex).
Solipsism. Perhaps you see through the matrix far enough to doubt it as well. You throw up your hands and take your solace in solipsism. To paraphrase Woody Allen on a similar topic: at least it’s belief in someone I love.
Alas, the respite doesn’t last long. Slippery slope indeed. Solipsism observed cannot remain solipsism. The doubt has been sown successfully. “The world is me. But wait, I changed my mind yesterday, so there is no world…”
Slip on down and it’s nihilism. No fun there. Okay, back to the matrix, if you can. In either case, you double down on hedonism, just a question of whether you prefer the short-term kind or the long-term. How do you feel today?