Ideological Trees Require Regular Pruning
Throughout our lives, we will gain access to new information that may disprove or alter our perspective of a particular ideology. As we alter senior ideologies within our ideological tree, we need to remember to review subordinate ideologies after the alterations are made to maintain consistency across the tree.
For example, suppose you are considering a polyamorous relationship and had previously assumed that monogamy was your preferred relationship model. In such a scenario, rather than merely asking yourself: “Should I be polyamorous now?” you should ask yourself:
- What made me think monogamy was the best way to approach relationships given my objective function?
- What information made me think I should consider polyamory instead?
- How does this affect the rest of my beliefs about relationships?