poukledden

The Root of All Evil -- if I were to succumb to the desire to simplify such a complex question into a simplistic answer -- might be our desperate need for certainty. We don't deal with Not Knowing very well. We don't deal well with Doubt.

Jacob Bronowski once warned us about that, and showed us the example of where that desperate need to be certain can lead:


But that is the stuff of the large movements of peoples and civilizations. It works on a personal level, too. As I look at myself, I see that every fear I have is founded in just that desire -- to know, to be certain. Labels are useful for that, because they give the illusion of Knowing. I am This, or I am That, and it all becomes easy to understand. Labels encourage ingredients-list membership*, and suppress the difficult act of thinking and questioning. Labels are, of course, useful, and often necessary. But they carry a danger of becoming the object of devotion, rather than the thing they point to.

In the modern age, we know more than ever how little we know. It takes a definite courage to face up to that, embrace it, and run with it, content to know that there is much you will never know, much you'll never be certain about. I'm tired of searching for certainty, and increasingly aware of the madness that quest can engender.

(*it strikes me that there's an entire metaphor to be had with cooking -- there's folks who follow recipes religiously, always using exact amounts and never experimenting or deviating. Cooking is Following Directions. And then there's the mad scientists of the kitchen, who mix and experiment and wing it, and sure they sometimes create something inedible or accidentally set fire to the blender, but then again, they also create wonders. Certainly, we all know whose dinner parties we most look forward to.)