Certainty

We live in a chaotic world. Things change fast – super fast. Artificial Intelligence is moving at a speed that very few can even wrap our brains around. We have no idea what the impact of it will be – we only offer speculation. there is financial uncertainty and struggle for many, while a handful of others control unfathomable amounts of wealth that rival nation states. The weather is unpredictable and the damage from storms seems to be getting worse with time. Our political systems are struggling. The roughly 80-year established world order seems to be crumbling in our midst. Younger generations are expressing a type of hopelessness that have some experts worried.

That’s just a small summary that scratches the surface. The list could go on and on.

in some sense, these are all new challenges that humanity faces. And in another, they are just variations on old themes that humanity has been facing for as long as humans have been around. There is nothing new under the sun, as the old adage goes.

One thing that has been consistent throughout time is humanity’s need for a sense of control. We want to know. We need to know. We want control over our lives and our surroundings. We need it.

And the reality is that we have never had control. And our level of knowing is pretty limited, although that has expanded over time. But that’s on a larger scale of human existence. What about our individual lives?

We benefit from those who have come before us more often than not. Just like those that come after us will benefit from what we learn and the mistakes that we make and figure out how to overcome. We don’t always learn from the past though. Sometimes we fool ourselves into believing we are smarter or better than those that came before us.

So what do we do with the chaos that is around us?

There are some political and religious figures that offer certainty. It’s nothing new. Authoritarian styles of leadership offer certainty. They are designed to eliminate variation. The language and sayings may change over time, but the style is the same. Certainty is alluring. It addresses the deep fear and anxiety that people have of not being in control. It’s like a drug that covers over whatever else you are feeling. And like so many drugs, it can be addictive, and it can consume the person using it.

Certainty offers a promise of overcoming that fear and anxiety. Yet, when certainty is implemented it often creates additional fears and anxieties, as well as other health, economic, and cultural problems.

I have seen far too many videos and posts from those who like to claim certainty. They are all the same. They claim an unspoken level of authority – as if what they are about to proclaim is the absolute unquestioned truth. They see themselves as the arbiter of what is normal or right. And anyone who is not in alignment with their proclamation isn’t just wrong, but evil and to be opposed and fought against and conquered. There is always an “other” or a “them” to be defeated when it comes to certainty. There has to be. That’s because certainty operates in a system. Certainty has two participants – a protagonist and an antagonist. And both need each other. You have to have a bag guy in order to know that the other person is the good guy. Certainty can only define things based on what they are not. And those that peddle certainty have no reason to listen to alternatives. They know.

The biggest flaw of certainty is that it keeps everything in the abstract – which is ironic actually. Certainty can only deal with ideas, not with actual people. Certainty requires people to be abstractions of ideas – good/bad. But people are messier than that. I’ve never met anyone who all good or all bad. I have met people who are afraid or anxious though. I have met people who were certain, but didn’t have the capacity to listen or engage in real conversation. Conversation would have created uncertainty and not knowing.

You can’t have both full certainty and full humanity. I don’t think it possible anyway. If you are going to see the humanity of others, then you are going to have to embrace that you just don’t know and you have such a limited level of control over anything.

I don’t think it’s an all or nothing thing though when it comes to certainty. Having no certainty at all would probably create unlimited chaos that would cause us to struggle to survive. Maybe full certainty or the absence of all certainty isn’t the goal. Maybe there’s a healthy mix somewhere in the middle that we have yet to find in society. I suspect there are people who have found it. And once found, they don’t shout it out because they understand something about it – that it’s not something to use for your own purposes. And it’s not something that you can own. It’s just the essence of life. It’s a foolish errand to chase after. Because when we do, we lose sight of the humanity in ourselves and others. We miss seeing the fullness of existence that we are a part of.