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2Doubt Your DoubtsStop letting fear call the shots

In North Korea every household must have a radio mounted on a main wall in their living room. This radio has only one channel, and it’s dedicated to government propaganda. The volume can be turned up or turned down, but it can never be turned off.

It’s impossible to imagine the everyday life of ordinary North Koreans — afraid to speak against the government for fear they and two generations of their family will be sent to the notorious ‘reeducation’ camps. Or worse. It’s also impossible to imagine the full psychological impact of being bombarded with propaganda 24/7 without access to any other information sources.

Yet an intrinsic part of the human experience is to live with our own internal radio channel spurting out all array of fear-laden falsehoods into our mental airways, day and night. Our very own Radio DoubtFM. Left uncensored, its fearmongering propaganda can subdue us into compliant submission so we never dare to speak up or step out for fear of what might happen if we do. Over time, we can grow so accustomed to the noise and negativity that we lose our ability to critically evaluate its dire predictions of the perils that might befall us if we don’t play life super safe. It’s why so many do.

Of course, we can try all sorts of remedies to shut down that doubt-fuelling discourse. None work. Well, not for long. Which is why we can so easily start buying into our inner rhetoric, treating it as ‘the truth’ — that we ...