A question of doubt and certainty

The positive role of doubt as a door cracked opened on the unexpected, on discovery and the creative in the face of a massive surge in unyielding certainty.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Hitting your head against a wall

Have you ever had a conversation with someone about a difficult subject and had the impression you were hitting your head against a brick wall? Not that you expect to bring the person round to your point of view, but at least that they leave room for your ideas. But there’s nothing for it. They have the truth and there can be no doubt. It’s an infuriating situation. I’ve often wondered why such a confrontation should spark so much emotion. I suspect it’s because, deep down, it is your very existence that is being denied. The person has no place for you. Or more accurately, he or she has no room for the doubt that you embody, for the possibility that other visions might be pertinent.

A space for doubt

Doubt may well be the key word here. Doubt? Not necessarily doubt about yourself. Nor about the point you are arguing in favour of. Rather, and this is difficult to express, a small space in which something different, unexpected, even untoward, is possible. An opening that brings discovery and innovation within reach. A tiny chink in which the other person’s ideas, however outrageous or outlandish, might have a place, a chance to exist, even if they contradict what you believe. Or at least, a space where their words can be examined without outright dismissal. 

The fear of contamination

Alongside the anger of being summarily dismissed, is a visceral fear that you risk being contaminated by the other’s approach, that you end up like him, in a world where doubt has no place and the joy of discovery and invention is banished, replaced by the excitement of belonging to a like-minded crowd following an all-powerful charismatic leader. This fear is not so unrealistic. First, as someone who doubts, you are a poor match for a person who has no room for doubt and will not budge an iota from his beliefs. Furthermore, a confrontation with such an unbending attitude fosters a similar refusal to compromise that is difficult to resist.

Once more into the breech

So what can we do? The normal motor for change is a growing dissonance between perceptions and the reality of the world. But our interlocutor has bolted the doors against such possibilities. We need to make him doubt, to open a breech for other possibilities, but the usual methods don’t work. Arguing our case is fruitless. Logic and reason carry no weight. I must admit I have no ready solution. The only possible avenues I perceive are humour and the unexpected. It’s true, there is something tragically hilarious about a massive crowd frogmarching forward to the tune of an ‘enlightened’ leader, on constantly shifting ground. But the weakness of those who refuse to doubt in unlikely to make them laugh.

Alan McCluskey, November 26th 2024.

See also Welcoming Uncertainty in repose to a question about this article on LinkedIn.