BETWEEN DOUBT AND CERTAINTY
Reflections on the state of our public discourse
To live in doubt is difficult.
Doubt makes us anxious, nauseous. This is especially so when dealing with issues that truly matter, like morality and justice. We crave certainty. When doubt is a constant feature of our lives, resignation is understandable, perhaps even natural. When this resignation is total, when it is infinite, the narrow abyss that separates doubt and certainty can suddenly be crossed. In the final moments, when almost defeated by doubt, the individual can rebel. In this last, desperate effort to survive they can cross the abyss blindly—not with a leap of faith, but with an exhausted, often angry tumble of relief—reaching out for something, anything that might relieve them of their burdens, but ultimately ignorant of whatever awaits them on the other side.
What is the state of our public discourse?
Many, when confronted by doubt, trembled. They lacked the resolve, the strength to stand firm in the face of fear. Certain public intellectuals, commentators and activists, however, have now recovered from their tumbles. Others, having been raised in a world of oppositions and absolutes, do not know what it is to truly doubt. Relieved of this burden, aided by self-indulgent circles of friends and allies, and bolstered by self-curated and self-censored sources of information and ideas, these Knights of Certainty have descended on the public realm.