There isn’t an Omega, but there historically have been inquisitions, secret police, and all manner of institutional repressive forces. And even in free countries, there is quite powerful social pressure to conform.
It may often be more useful to adopt a common high-status false belief, than to pay the price of maintaining a true low-status belief. This applies even if you keep that belief secretly—there’s a mental burden in trying to to systematically keep clear your true beliefs from your purported beliefs, and there’s a significant chance of letting something slip.
To pick a hopefully non-mind-killing example: whether or not professional sports are a wasteful and even barbaric practice, knowing about the local team, and expressing enthusiasm for them, is often socially helpful.
There isn’t an Omega, but there historically have been inquisitions, secret police, and all manner of institutional repressive forces. And even in free countries, there is quite powerful social pressure to conform.
It may often be more useful to adopt a common high-status false belief, than to pay the price of maintaining a true low-status belief. This applies even if you keep that belief secretly—there’s a mental burden in trying to to systematically keep clear your true beliefs from your purported beliefs, and there’s a significant chance of letting something slip.
To pick a hopefully non-mind-killing example: whether or not professional sports are a wasteful and even barbaric practice, knowing about the local team, and expressing enthusiasm for them, is often socially helpful.