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Why Not to Be Right:

Katherine Newburgh, PhD
5 min readDec 12, 2023

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Free up massive energetic resources with this simple decision

Vika Strawberrika, Unsplash

In one of his lectures, Ram Dass noted that relinquishing righteousness is the last, most intractable gate we have to pass through before we reach enlightenment.

The bitterest fights in our lives stem from our need to be right. Countless relationships have shipwrecked on these shores, and innumerable organizations corrode themselves from the inside out at the threshold of this gate.

Righteousness is not an accidental development in our species- there is actually anthropological precedent for our need to be right. In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari notes that one of the things that makes humans unique is what he calls “intersubjective realities.” These are collective agreements that don’t exist on the physical plane. Instead, they’re the metaphysical constructs that run our world. Money is an example of an intersubjective reality; so are national borders.

Much of the conflict in our history as a species has come from the overpowering need to be the one to define the intersubjective realities that structure our behavior. This is a powerful impulse and not one to be taken lightly.

These intersubjective realities have served us in the past, but as we can see from the rampant exploitation of our planet and…

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Katherine Newburgh, PhD
Katherine Newburgh, PhD

Written by Katherine Newburgh, PhD

Kate Newburgh, Ph.D, top writer in Leadership. Books, resources, and consultations to promote thriving for teams and individuals: www.booksofeden.com

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