I’m pretty strongly convinced that it is deeply irresponsible to “accept the status quo”. I think it’s very important that we try to change the way the universe is. But, in order to change the way the universe is, it’s important to first come to terms with how the universe is.
I think that I’m by default systematically bad at accepting the truth. At least historically, I’ve clung to “beliefs” far beyond the point when I had reason to abandon these beliefs. This is quite natural. Challenging a belief can require admitting that you’re wrong. Often, accepting the truth means that you need to change the way you live or think, sometimes in major ways. But this is bad. I think with practice, one can learn to flinch away from falsehoods.
EY has some nice writings on this topic.
One thing that EY points out is that questioning your beliefs is not intrinsically good. Questioning your beliefs is useless if you question because you think that it’s good to introspect, but don’t plan to do anything based on your investigation — if you’ve already “written your bottom line”. What’s useful is to want to actually arrive at the right answer.
What’s true is already so.
Admitting that won’t make it any worse.
If X is true, then I want to believe X.
If X is true then I can “stand” X; I already am.
If X is false, then I want to believe not X.
-Litany of Tarski, paraphrased