The Illusion of Unquestionable Truth
In 1.8 years of COVID isolation, punctuated only by intense periods of work, I discovered something startling about how systems maintain power. Not through overt force or fear, but through self-reinforcing validation loops—so seamless and natural that they appear inevitable, even true.
A Moment of Impact
This realization solidified after a workplace injury at a home improvement store. The pandemic had amplified pressures: frustrated customers treated workers as obstacles, delivery trucks blocked exits in a race against time, and employees struggled to balance overwhelming tasks. In one such moment, a 25-kilogram box struck my head, initiating not just physical symptoms but an enforced period of observation—one that allowed me to see these validation loops in action.
Recognizing the Patterns
In my imposed silence, I noticed an unsettling trend: across different domains—education, finance, social structures, and even neurology—systems preserved their authority through circular validation mechanisms. Let’s break them down.
The Educational Loop: The Power of Expectations
A teacher sees a student’s socioeconomic background and forms an expectation. This perception subtly influences:
- The quality of interactions
- The level of support offered
- The opportunities provided
- The attention given to performance
In time, the student’s actual performance aligns with these preconceived expectations—not through chance, but through an elegant cycle of self-fulfillment. The prophecy sustains itself, not by magic, but by systemic design.
The Academic Barrier: Who Defines “New” Ideas?
In academia, truly novel ideas are rarely recognized unless they emerge from familiar, credentialed sources. Even when an outsider introduces a groundbreaking concept, the system resists. As economist Joseph Schumpeter noted, innovation often comes from combining existing knowledge—yet academia acknowledges novelty only when it fits within its established framework. The gatekeepers define what is legitimate, ensuring their own authority remains unquestioned.
The Financial Fortress: The Credit Conundrum
Banking systems perfect the art of circular validation:
- To build credit, you need a credit history.
- To gain credit history, you need access to credit.
- Every rejection results in a hard inquiry, lowering your score and increasing future rejection odds.
Even secured credit cards, backed by an applicant’s own money, are sometimes denied for lacking credit history. The cycle perpetuates itself with mathematical precision.
The Social Algorithm: Dating Apps and Visibility Loops
On dating platforms, reduced engagement leads to lower visibility, which further diminishes engagement. If you receive fewer matches, the algorithm assumes you’re undesirable, further decreasing your profile’s exposure. Here, the system’s predictions create their own proof, ensuring its reality remains intact.
The Language of Power and Control
Protection systems go beyond actions; they manipulate the language we use, subtly shaping how we experience reality. Consider anger: Do we feel it because it exists, or does it exist because we have words to define and, consequently, create it?
When challenged, protection systems deploy language as a defense mechanism:
- The Brain Labels New Information as “Dangerous”
- It Triggers Physical Symptoms to Match This Label
- The Symptoms Reinforce the Label, Closing the Loop
Language and body collaborate, manufacturing their own evidence, making it nearly impossible to break free.
The Protection Paradox: The Brain’s Resistance to Change
Our brains do not simply resist new information—they actively generate real physiological danger to maintain existing patterns:
- Thoughts escalate like incoming fire.
- Heart rate spikes to alarming levels.
- Blood pressure reaches crisis points.
- More intrusive thoughts cascade.
- Physical symptoms intensify.
This is not a malfunction—it is the system executing its function flawlessly. It would rather generate a crisis than admit that its programming requires an update.
Breaking the Cycle: The Key to Disruption
Ironically, the way to disrupt these self-validating loops is not through direct confrontation. Arguing with a perfect circle is futile. Instead, the path forward involves strategic interruption:
1. Recognizing That Protection Systems Shape Reality
- Through physical symptoms
- Through language that defines experiences
- Through actions that validate preconceived beliefs
- Through cultural frameworks that reinforce power
2. Understanding That Direct Confrontation Fails
- You cannot argue with a system that defines its own truth.
- Reason is useless when the system is in a defensive state.
- Fighting systemic loops with their own tools only strengthens them.
3. Leveraging Interruption to Create Change
- Physical action disrupts thought cascades.
- New language creates new possibilities.
- Pattern recognition provides leverage.
- Understanding these loops exposes their weakest points.
Moving Forward: A New Reality
The key to breaking these cycles is not to fight them head-on but to recognize them for what they are—beautifully self-sustaining illusions. By identifying these validation loops, we unlock new opportunities to shift the narrative and create alternative realities.
And perhaps the greatest irony? This very insight, about systems maintaining power through self-validation, might be dismissed by academic publishers for lacking the “proper” credentials—thus proving the point perfectly.
But in that irony lies hope. Because once we see how these circles sustain their own reality, we gain the power to craft realities of our own.
