Be Less Certain
"Blind Certainty- a close mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up"- David Foster Wallace
Tonight I watched most of a Frontline show on prison solitary confinement. It clearly showed how people quickly deteriorate when placed in a box for most of the day without human contact. It sucked out the will to live and quickly they deteriorated into self-destruction.
The quote above focuses on a different type of imprisonment. But are they the same? The prisoners know that they are locked up and even if they wanted to leave can not. They have no choice.
How about blind certainty? Well the quote teaches us that the person might not even know that they are locked up. It is completely internal. No fences exist. Unlike the solitary confinement prisoner, we have a choice but we never exercise it.
We like being imprisoned by blind certainty. We like it so much that we only want new information that fits the existing certainty. Quickly we can discount and dismiss anything different from our belief.
The choice to remove the certainty is available. We just have to be big enough to exercise it with a little bit of doubt about everything we believe to be true.
Today's question is:
"How can you be less certain of what you believe to be true?"
"Blind Certainty- a close mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up"- David Foster Wallace
Tonight I watched most of a Frontline show on prison solitary confinement. It clearly showed how people quickly deteriorate when placed in a box for most of the day without human contact. It sucked out the will to live and quickly they deteriorated into self-destruction.
The quote above focuses on a different type of imprisonment. But are they the same? The prisoners know that they are locked up and even if they wanted to leave can not. They have no choice.
How about blind certainty? Well the quote teaches us that the person might not even know that they are locked up. It is completely internal. No fences exist. Unlike the solitary confinement prisoner, we have a choice but we never exercise it.
We like being imprisoned by blind certainty. We like it so much that we only want new information that fits the existing certainty. Quickly we can discount and dismiss anything different from our belief.
The choice to remove the certainty is available. We just have to be big enough to exercise it with a little bit of doubt about everything we believe to be true.
Today's question is:
"How can you be less certain of what you believe to be true?"
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