Certainty?

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him.”  Leo Tolstoy, 1897.

In these complex times, there’s too much certainty and not enough questioning.  Well, not really certainty.  It’s conviction and most people believe their convictions to be certain. That is, they are convinced that they are right.  You know the type; they say “they tell it like it is” as though their view is the only accurate one.  When people believe that their convictions are certain, they can forgo questions and other people’s opinions.   

I think the reason people respond this way is to assure themselves that there is certainty; even if they have to define it themselves. We all need to have some degree of certainty about what the future holds.

Here’s the rub:  personal certitude is not certainty.  In other words, what we believe in order to bring order to our life is certitude.  It is not certainty.  Certainty is how things are.  Certitude is how we believe they are.

Let’s take religion as an example.  Most of us are born into one religion or another.  We are taught what to believe.  Eventually we take what we believe to be certain.  We can’t understand how others can believe something different.  The problem comes when we realize that someone else believes that his view is certain.  But what we have is two people who have certitude, not certainty.  Think of it this way:  Certitude is subjective.  Certainty is objective.    

This is a problem because we confuse our personal certitude with certainty.  And when we do, we think we have no other option than to disagree with others who have different points of view.

I’m not saying that disagreement is wrong.  If used effectively, it can stimulate growth and change for the better.  But if not, we solidify our positions and nothing useful can happen.  Kind of like the Right and Left on the political spectrum.

For example, take president Obama’s speech in Cairo last year.  Critics were calling it an apology.  Why is this so?  Because we are certain that our actions in the world have been justified. Unfortunately, most of the rest of that world disagrees.  And they have their own certitude. 

I listened intently to president Obama’s speech.  Critics still claim that he was apologizing. I didn’t hear any apologies.  I heard him state our positions on a number of issues - our certitude.  I heard him admit to our past actions.  The audience already knew what we had done.  But his admissions re-established some degree of trust.  And he opened the door to the other side to declare their positions - their certitude.  What lies unresolved is how we will reconcile our differences.  And that will define certainty.

Living with uncertainty is one of humankind’s most difficult challenges.  We are the only known creatures on the earth that realize that there is a future.  Other animals live in ignorant bliss.  To them there is only the present. But our awareness of a future has empowered us to become masters of the planet.  The other side of that coin is that we have the ability to destroy the planet and ourselves with it.

That would seem  like a pretty good reason to learn to listen to another’s point of view and realize that he or she feels as certain as we do.  Because if we don’t, we’re not going to resolve the complex problems that we face today.  We need the best ideas and we can only get them if we open our minds to other people’s thinking.  Of this, I’m certain.

Robert DeFilippis