The blindness is rampant. It afflicts so many around the world. More than what can be sustained; more than we should want or accept. What we believe is what we know to be fact, whether that fact is indeed a fact to everyone or only to ourselves. We are so sure of what we believe that we perpetuate it to our children without regard. We preach it as gospel. We place it deep within ourselves and protect it from any criticism or contact with reality that proves contrary to it. We seek the weak-minded amongst us to influence, inculcate, and bring to our side. Those that disagree with us are labeled as wrong, dumb, misguided, evil, unpatriotic or any other number of unflattering names.
I have witnessed few people who possess the courage or strength to resist such practices. Very few indeed can withstand the urge to categorize, label, and judge. More often than not, those who seek refuge from the hostile realm of opinions remove themselves from the temptation altogether, distancing themselves from potential crossfire, and shying away from any discussion for fear or distaste of arguments and contention.
Who can blame these people for doing so? Certainly not I. For entering those battles does not result in a winner being crowned, good feelings of any kind, or (very rarely) any type of compromise or resolution. There are only losers all around.
If you pay even the slightest attention to the affairs of the day, it is fairly clear that divisions are growing, hostilities escalating, and positions are only becoming further reinforced. Listening to and reading these viewpoints and arguments would be comical if it weren’t so sad. Everyone is so sure of their superior intelligence. They conduct themselves with a confidence in their opinions touted as fact which I can only stand in awe of.
This confidence transcends argument. It allows these superior beings, these enlightened individuals, these oracles and judges and masters of knowledge, these imperial holders of the true truth to govern for others, to direct the lives of the misguided, to sit on high and define morality, humanity, patriotism, right and wrong, and the way things should be. No need to call in the jury for the judgement is cast. It doesn’t matter if someone disagrees with them. Those dissenters are clearly wrong and do not know what they are talking about. They are misguided. They are evil. They are uneducated, if not idiotic!
I can’t help but admire all these wise, just, and enlightened people. To know the feeling of true knowledge, right and wrong, vice and virtue, and all the answers that elude so many of us who belong to the poor, unfortunate, and ignorant masses. What must that burden of enlightenment be like! To tolerate all of us weak-minded and misguided individuals.
It makes me long for the days of my youth where I was so certainty of what I knew. Unfortunately, those days are long past, and I now find myself forced to live in a state of confusion. What happened? I swear I used to be smart. I used to be certain. Now, I am lost and hopelessly ignorant. How can it be that I am certain of only one thing: how very little I am certain of. Could it be that I have always lived in a world that is a conundrum, a paradox, and a contradiction and I am only now learning this fact? That is the only thing that makes sense to me.
Perhaps the question shouldn’t be: how is it that I know so little? Perhaps it should be: how is it that there are so many out there that know so much?
I’m obviously being facetious, but only to a point. Knowledge and certainty are limited for all of us. But while many out there are aware of this, too few can admit the limit of their own abilities or knowledge. To “know thyself” is something for others to be concerned with. It is the mirror the enlightened hold up for the rest of the world to keep them at bay. It is not meant for them to question their own fallibility.
What would the world be like if we were able to not only admit our shortfalls and ignorance but accept them on top of that? This seems like a small thing to propose (and it most definitely is), but I assure you it is far easier to talk about its simplicity than to get people to readily practice it.
We hesitate to admit the merit or validity of an argument we disagree with because we are afraid that it could disprove our contrary viewpoint. As if there is only one perspective that we can label true. Were we able to expand our mindset and allow for the world to include other viewpoints, beliefs, and principles—and allow those diverse perspectives to coexist with ours—we could begin to see unimaginable progress in society. Instead, we cling to our “patriotic” way of believing and defining what is right. If ever a sliver of doubt about the current way of things creeps into our thoughts, we push it away with a sense of shame. After all, who are we to doubt the way of things? Who are we to believe things could or should be different, or better? Is not the world we live in created by those god-like beings we call our forefathers. To even question whether the system they created is the best we can do is blasphemy. Or so it seems.
Are we anything but a self-absorbed and egocentric species led by the most narcissistic among us who provide us with the shallowest of solutions to the most superficial symptoms of the slew of self-inflicted injuries we see in the world? While this perspective is extremely harsh, I want to believe we are more than that. No doubt there are individuals who are so much more than the unflattering description above. Unfortunately, extraordinary things take more than an individual to achieve. As important as the individual is, we are so much more—or I should say that we can be so much more—than disconnected individuals. As individuals we can only accomplish a fraction of what we could as a group, as a community. This double-edged sword is true for things both good and bad.
Is that day approaching where the good we create will outshine the bad? Or will we continue to underachieve and fall short of our potential? So long as we proceed with anger and enmity, I can’t help but believe our potential will be delayed for yet another day.