Maybe I’m Wrong: A Pursuit for the Meaning of Life

By August M. Owl

The year 2020 was a peculiar year for most people. It certainly was a challenging year due to the COVID-19 crisis. Many disruptive events took places, and it was hard to understand what was going on based on past personal experiences. I guess how it feels to live a revolution. Some people behaved weirdly, and nothing made much sense. I certainly felt lost. But with the help of friends and family, I managed to figure it all out. I want to invite you to read about my personal story, mainly what happened in 2020. During the process, I ended up fighting with dear friends, and I was accused of being radical. Perhaps this trait helped me figure it all out.
The year 2020 will enter history as one of the most challenging and revolutionising years in the history of humankind. People displayed signs of pessimism, fear, anger, hatred, and despair. Most of us felt perplexed with the behaviour of some people who have different ideologies. In a new era of high connectivity and easily accessible information, some people fell prey to quick conclusions and shallow thinking. To some extent, most of us did it, too, to a certain degree. Some of us rushed to conclusions without a more in-depth reflection on some matters. And some of us even accepted to promote minor injustices to defend our ideology. Humans have behaved in unexplainable ways many times throughout history. Many injustices have been boosted by large populations, including crimes against numerous minorities. How can we come together and promote true unity to prevent injustices? Honest and purposeful debates combined with critical thinking are two fundamental tools in the process. But there are other easy ways to remember rules that may help us in the challenging task of avoiding unnecessary confrontation. I invite the reader to reflect on major recent events and with a little help from reason, it's definitely possible to understand the motivations of people around us and even make recommendations. Predictions help us to validate our model. Critical thinking will be a powerful ally in the process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: August M. Owl
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005143374

August M. Owl

Writer of the book "Maybe I'm Wrong"

Book preview

Maybe I’m Wrong - A Pursuit for the Meaning of Life

August M. Owl

Published by August M. Owl

2020 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC-BY-SA)

License Notes

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1. Setting the Stage

Chapter 2. A novel virus

Chapter 3. Something strange

Chapter 4. A better world

Chapter 5. Critical Thinking

Chapter 6. Principles

Chapter 7. Debating controversial issues

Chapter 8. Impacts on my life

Chapter 9. A tailored reality

Chapter 10. A controversial election

Chapter 11. Future challenges

Chapter 12. Not over yet

Chapter 13. References

Chapter 14. Conspiracy Theory

Epilogue

Prologue

Have you had the feeling that 2020 was an odd year? Things were strange, out of the ordinary, people were behaving weirdly, and nothing made much sense? If you felt this way, welcome to the club. I would like to invite you to read about my personal story, particularly what happened in 2020. I felt helpless, lost, fought with friends and family, was accused of being radical, but I can say there was a happy ending. For me, at least. I don’t consider this a spoiler. It’s like one of those opening scenes in episodes from streaming platforms that give away some but not all information.

The year 2020 will enter history as one of the most challenging and revolutionising years in the history of humankind. People displayed signs of pessimism, fear, anger, hatred, and despair. Most of us felt perplexed with the behaviour of some people who have different ideologies. In a new era of high connectivity and easily accessible information, some people fell prey to quick conclusions and shallow thinking. To some extent, most of us did it, too, to a certain degree. Some of us rushed to conclusions without a more in-depth reflection on some matters. And some of us even accepted to promote minor injustices to defend our ideology. Humans have behaved in unexplainable ways many times throughout history. Many injustices have been boosted by large populations, including crimes against numerous minorities. How can we come together and prevent injustices? Honest and purposeful debates and critical thinking are two fundamental tools in the process. But there are other easy ways to remember rules that may help us in the challenging task of avoiding unnecessary confrontation. And if we have learned anything, we may even make recommendations, predictions to validate our model. Critical thinking will be a powerful ally in the process.

Chapter 1. Setting the Stage

The story I am about to share starts in mid-March of 2020. At the time, I was a 38-year old Latin American expat living in a major city in Oceania. Let me give more information about me. I was born in a midsize town. I studied medicine from 1999 until 2004 and then specialised in general surgery up to 2009. During the first years of my career, I worked long shifts, which left me only a few hours to spend with my family. In 2014, due to increasing criminality rates, we decided it was time to take our kids (ages 5 and 2 at the time) and leave the country. We wanted to pursue a country where we could enjoy more freedom and less injustice. We were concerned not only with the rising criminality rates but with the deterioration of educational institutions. We feared there would be fewer acceptable educational opportunities for the kids. It took us just over a year to plan the details of the exit, but by the end of 2015, we were on the road. We spent almost a year travelling the world, having visited thirteen countries. In October 2016, Oceania, on the other side of the world, the most recent continent colonized by men. A place we have been calling home for the past four years.

Living in a foreign country is a fantastic experience. It provides the opportunity to discover a new culture, explore positive its aspects while maintaining positive cultural norms of the country where you were born and raised. It is a win-win situation. If I am honest, I must say it comes with some challenges, like being away from friends and family. In a sense, our family pioneered the shift of most of our conversations to texts and video conferences, way before most of the world.

In 2017 I studied full time towards a postgraduate diploma in business. It was an opportunity to expand my knowledge of business and economics. But I also had plenty of free time, which I utilised mostly to read and watch videos on subjects I was interested in, which included economics, business, and politics, to name a few. In 2018, I dedicated most of my time to obtain the residence visa, which took a bit longer than I anticipated. In 2019, I studied towards my master’s degree in health sciences.

I must admit I spent a considerable amount of time watching videos recommended by the algorithm of a major platform, and I found fascinating concepts I had no idea existed. Most of the time, I watched TED talks, as well as other science-related content. I regularly shared them with friends and family. Most of the time, I received no feedback, probably because the lectures were too long and most people skipped watching them altogether, but occasionally I had to deal with some criticism.

Some people believe meeting an old friend is a fantastic experience because our minds subconsciously have the opportunity to check how much that person has changed since the last time we last saw them. We also have the chance to show how we have changed or remained the same person. It is exciting because sometimes it positively surprises us, sometimes it frustrates us. And sometimes it just feels good to know the person has not changed a thing, and we can still maintain the (good) memories we share and how we see them.

These episodes in which I was criticised for having a different opinion, or sometimes for just sharing a video discussing a particular topic which was sensitive for them, were an initial signal I confess I failed to notice.

Chapter 2. A novel virus

In mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 infection, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was all over the news. We started to see people advocating for the strategy of flattening the curve. If you lived on planet Earth in 2020, you probably did not miss it. I must admit I was an enthusiast for the first three days. I even