I stuck this in a big orange diary earlier, but it zoomed off the edge of diary land, so it seemed a good time to bring it over here — not that I think of BT as lesser. Just a little quieter (and that’s probably only for now).
If you haven’t noticed, NPR has revived the radio classic “This I Believe” in which people — some famous, some not so famous — present essays on the beliefs that shape their lives, including Penn Jillette’s “positive disbelief” in God, Deirdre Sullivan’s assertion that you should always go to the funeral, and Studs Terkel’s uplifting belief in the power of a community in action.
Still quoting Tom Paine: “He sees his species not with the inhuman idea of a natural enemy” — you’re either with us or against us. No, he sees his species as kindred.” –(from Studs Terkel’s “This I Believe” essay)
I’m submitting an essay of my own, but since it’s unlikely they’ll ever pull my name out of the hat, I thought I’d share it with you. And if you have some core belief of your own, I’d hope you’d share it in return.
This I Believe
I believe in doubt. Or at least, I’m pretty sure I do.
People talk about doubt like it’s a bad thing, but doubt is not just good — it’s essential. Every pilot who goes down the checklist a final time, every scientist who reruns an experiment, every pharmacist who stops to double check a prescription, and every policeman who bothers to investigate an alibi, is working in the service of doubt. More lives were saved by doubters than ever were by people who were sure of themselves.
Doubt’s the father of curiosity. Everyone knew that heavy objects fell faster than light ones. Only Galileo doubted enough to climb that tower and check it out.
Doubt is the guardian of truth. Without doubt, who would ever bother to follow up, drill down, or push aside the fog and find out what’s really going on? When someone is playing you for a fool, the first thing they have to do is make you trust them. Don’t want to be a fool? Keep your doubt.
Doubt leads to thinking ahead. If you’re planning for the future, the last thing you want is a room for of rosy optimists — people who just know it’s all going to turn out okay. You think the people who built the Titanic did enough doubting? What about the people who planned the war in Iraq?
People who are certain always want to badmouth doubt. “You have to have confidence,” they say. “Hold fast, stay the course, never let a doubt enter your pretty little mind.” People who are certain are dangerous.
It’s those certain, confident, non-doubters who cause all the trouble. They already know they’re right, so damn the evidence, don’t bother to read that report, full speed ahead! Certain people take risks without even knowing they’re at risk, and they’re happy to take the rest of us along for the ride. Give certain people evidence that they’re wrong, and they’ll just dismiss it, because they already know the truth. Certain people will throw the first punch, because they know they’re in the right. Certain people don’t have a problem tromping on your rights, because they already know you’re a bad guy. Certain people don’t have an issue with bombing you or shooting you or burning your house down, because they know their cause is just.
Certain people are just certain that if we keep doing it their way, eventually everything will be good, and we’ll see that they were always right. And they know they’re right.
Being certain is right next door to being proud, and it there’s one thing I’m certain about, it’s that whoever put together the list of deadly sins had it right when he put pride at the front of that list. Certain people are confident in their beliefs, secure in their own smugness, and blinded to anything that doesn’t fit their ideas. That’s a certain case for diaster. What’s needed is a good dose of humility — also known as doubt. You know, you just might not be right all the time. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re not.
I’d like to think I’d convinced certain people to think again, to double check a few of their assumptions, and take one more look before they leap. But I doubt it.
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Originally posted at:
Political Cortex |
Just excellent. I am also a great believer in doubt. I do doubt very, very well.
I don’t just believe in doubt — I love it.
I love the 0.01% of things that don’t quite surrender to our current understanding of relativity. I love the idea that no one really knows what’s going on down there with the quanta. I particularly love the thought that — right this second — there is some absolute basic principle of science, or math, or social theory that is going to be proven dead wrong. In fact, almost everything we “know” will be refined, altered, or completely overturned with time.
What could be cooler than that?
What could be cooler than that?
If more people knew it was true. 😉 Nice essay.
Great piece, and very well written, but I think you are mistaken to equate doubt with humility.
For me, doubt is about asking questions; arrogance, accordingly, is (etymologically) the inability or refusal to ask questions.
I don’t think anyone who is still asking questions can be accused of arrogance. Humility comes from “being on the ground, lowly(ing)” and I think anyone who is firmly rooted on the ground, perhaps even delving beneath the ground with his/her questions, can be said to be humble.
There’s a lot of false humility and false pride around–personally, I consider them both to be equal on the scale of “deadly sins.”
To me, humility comes first from the assumption that you might be wrong. So long as you believe you’re always in the right, then no matter how gentle your talk, the best you’ll manage is pity for all those “lesser” beings.
Sometimes, it seems that the only people that manage to get anything significant done in this world are those that manage to push aside their doubts and forge ahead despite discordant opinions.
Of course, not all of those that do that succeed, but it seems that fewer of the doubters get anywhere. Is that a good thing?
Would our world be a better place without doubtless leaders?
Well… probably shouldn’t judge all ‘doubtless leaders’ by the one we’ve lived under for the past 5 years, but…
Is there really any need to polarize it like that? Wouldn’t we be best off with leaders who aim to strike a healthy balance between doubt and certainty, trying to find the appropriate contexts for each to have a positive influence on outcomes?
Yeah, like when it comes to leaders, when the whole world and even a majority of your own people are flat out telling you, look, man, you’re dead wrong, then maybe it’s perhaps time to entertain the notion that they might be on to something and you might be in the wrong.
People who decide on a course of action and push ahead are not necessarily without doubt. Whenever a difficult decision is made, the road not taken is an unknown that will always harbor some portion of doubt about the decision made. This does not prevent honest people from forging ahead.
It does however give honest people pause to consider all options and their consequences before proceeding. This thoughtfulness and the knowledge that there will be no turning back, this doubt about whether one is choosing the best path surely brings our greatest leaders to the best possible decisions most of the time.
Great leaders may not always talk about their doubts, but I’m sure they study each decision with plenty of doubt as to whether the decision taken will be the best one.
Just imagine if our current President ever once stopped to consider that a decision he is taking may not be the best one. Perhaps, because of his doubts, he would then stop to think hard about the decision, weigh all possible outcomes, consult with experts and seek advice before taking the decision. Once the decision is finally taken, I would expect him to move ahead with that decision–but carefully, ready to change course if needed, because of doubt.
I think at this point we are talking about 3-6 meanings of the word doubt. Makes the conversation a bit difficult.
I read with an editor’s eye, at least in part. I noted that the meaning of the last doubt in the last sentence, is different than that in the rest of the piece.
Most of the grief in the world has been brought about by men who have no doubt. Jacob Bronowski dwells on this in one segment his wonderful documentary The Ascent of Man when he contemplates the absolute ideological certainty of the men who perpetrated the Holocaust. One of the most powerful moments in the segment comes when Bronowski, standing in the ankle-deep water of an ash pond at one of the Holocaust crematoriums, cries out, “I beg you, consider that you might be mistaken!”
One of my favorite sayings is, “It’s not the things we don’t know that hurt us. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.”
just a little reminder of the old song..oh lord it is hard to be humble, when you are perfect in every way…..just a little laugh here…
I am a doubter when it comes to some things. I have to be so certain in my job it is almost tantamount that I never doubt. Lives depend on me being perfect at my job. Because we are human, we do not think in those terms though. sometimes I wonder about humanity…;o) Hugs you guys….
This, I believe, is amazing!
You’ve written, in a very clear way, something I think we all knew but never thought much about. Our language is so polluted until doubt=spineless. Wobbly. Indecisive. Wishy-washy. Flippy-floppy.
And the spineless are not patriotic/love country/support troops or–are not believers. Which means, of course, not a good person. A person who is “not good” must either be or sympathize with its opposite–evil. I never made that connection until reading your diary.
No doubt about it–this is very, very well done!
My emphasis on the value of what you refer to as doubt is somewhat different, though not contradictory to yours.
I see doubt, (what I would describe in this instance as the willingness to question), as an essential component in growth and learning, and as an essential metric which we must engage to empower our beliefs, whatever they may be.
To the extent that we’ve been conditioned to accept our beliefs without question, our refusal to subject those beliefs to serious and fearless inquiry means that those very beliefs will always be shaky in our psyches, despite our best efforts to convince ourselves otherwise.
In other words, how can we claim the strength of our beliefs if we refuse to question them?
Doubt, (not simply taking things at face value),is essential to drive inquiry. Without it, we don’t need our neo cortex. We might as well be sheep.
I would have loved to temporize a bit (hey, I also believe in compromise!), but there was a darn 500 word limit to these things. I already went 50 over, which is likely enough to assure that they never hand me a mike in the first place.
I certainly believe there are times when you must act on your beliefs and go ahead in the face of any doubt. I just don’t think we should ever stop having those doubts.
The unexamined life…
I didn’t realize there was a word limit on these diaries. I’m a bit disillusioned by this, especially so since I’m fairly longwinded when seeking to make specific points.
H.L. Mencken is not a favorite person of mine for several reasons, but he has said some pretty great things on occassion. One of them was; “Question Everything!”
I think it’s very important to be able to do so.
Recognizing your name reminds me to visit at Political Cortex where, if I remember correctly, you are one of the Kahunas.
Yeah, there’s a reason why I’m a novelist, and not a poet. It’s in my nature to use ten words when one will do, and to beat around the bush before getting to the point.
I went years making a living where I was paid by the word count. That’s not the kind of training that makes a man concise!
Yes! The LTTE editor at my local newspaper, (Thank you Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel for publishing so many of my letters), on the subject of brevity once reminded me that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was a mere 269(?)words and that it managed to make his points quite nicely.
Happily forme she did go on not long after that conversation to print a 350 some worder from me.
Concision is the spice of life! (snicker)
Incision is the splice of life? (snicker)
Always look on the splice side of life.
(snicker)
Versus not use, probably means they would edit it.
They just don’t want to have to edit it from 800 or 1,250, so asked for what they want — 500.
Guessing, but a guess informed by experience.
Some changes you might not like, but some are obvious. Shoot me an email and I’ll send you a list of pointers for shortenating… if you’d like.
This is just one pass.
This I Believe
I believe in doubt. Or at least, I’m pretty sure I do.
People talk about doubt like it’s bad, but doubt is not only good — it’s essential. Every pilot who goes down the checklist a final time, every scientist who reruns an experiment, every pharmacist who stops to double check a prescription, and every policeman who bothers to investigate an alibi, is working in the service of doubt. More lives were saved by doubters than ever were by people who were sure of themselves.
Doubt’s the father of curiosity. Everyone knew that heavy objects fell faster than light ones. Only Galileo doubted enough to climb that tower and check it out.
Doubt is the guardian of truth. Without doubt, why bother to follow up, or push aside the fog to find out what’s really going on? When someone plays you for a fool, they must first make you trust them. Don’t want to be a fool? Keep your doubt.
Doubt leads to thinking ahead. In planning for the future, the last thing you want is a room full of rosy optimists — people who just know it’ll all be OK. You think the Titanic builders did enough doubting? What about the people who planned our current war?
People who are certain always want to badmouth doubt. “Have confidence!” they say. “Hold fast, stay the course, never let a doubt enter your mind.” People who are that certain are dangerous.
It’s those certain, confident, non-doubters who cause all the trouble. They know they’re right, so damn the evidence, don’t bother to read that report, full speed ahead!
Certain people take risks without knowing they’re at risk; they’re happy to take the rest of us along for the ride. Give certain people evidence they’re wrong, and they just dismiss it, because they already know the truth. Certain people throw the first punch, because they know they’re in the right. They don’t mind tromping on your rights, because they already know you’re a bad guy. They don’t mind bombing or shooting you or burning your house down — because they know their cause is just.
Certain people are convinced that if we keep doing it their way, eventually everything will be good, and we’ll see they were always right.
Being certain is right next door to being proud, and if I’m certain of anything, it’s that whoever organized the deadly sins was correct to put pride at the front of that list. Certain people are confident in their beliefs, secure in their smugness, and blinded to anything that doesn’t fit their ideas.
That’s a certain case for diaster. What’s needed is a dose of humility — also known as doubt. You know, you just might not be right all the time. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re not.
Perhaps I’ve convinced certain people to think again, to double check a few of their assumptions, to take one more look before they leap. But I doubt it.
Check out this alternate ending. (NOT that you asked for any such thing, mind you.)
Perhaps I’ve convinced certain people to think again, to double check a few of their assumptions, to take one more look before they leap. But I’m not certain of it.
(In that ending, being certain slips on the banana peel, takes the fall, is the punching bag, is the joke.)
There’s an old proverb from somewhere;
“Beware the man who asks no questions.”
If you do not doubt you can not grow.
brilliant!
Loved the Penn Jillette segment, but I find myself looking forward to them each week. In the squishy culture we now inhabit, it’s great to hear peole state their POV so directly.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
Excellent, excellent DT! Bookmarking this one.
As a corollary, those things which seem the most obvious, intuitive, or free-of-doubt to you are the things which must be questioned, scrutinized, and proven most rigorously.
This was always a major problem for me when doing mathematical proofs. I’d intuitively grasp something, assume it was obvious, and lose points for skipping vital steps in the reasoning. It still is a major problem for me in many ways, and it seems to be one of the few where being aware of it doesn’t help you deal with it. That takes a hefty chunk of willpower.
Watching the History Channel right now about the end times. This I believe:
“Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
– Robert Frost
there would be no knowledge,at all.
My mother was a scientist- she demanded that things be proven,not beyond a shadow of a doubt,but what could be proven,at that time.
Science advances, it seems to me, by that skeptical rule.
If someone believes a thing, with no proof,that is not reasonable,until you hear their story,anecdotal as it may be. I suppose that is the basis of faith.
But I do NOT think that that belief is translateable.
And those that seek to make it so are charlatans.
My .02$.
His comments were pivotal in my understanding of the world.
Certain events happened in his life (google or read the autobiography) to cause him to lose respect for someone he’d thought could do no wrong. A person who was urging others to stop sinning and live righteous lives — but was sinning himself, big time.
Malcolm X said, “Never trust anyone over 90%, including yourself.” He did NOT say this, but another way to say that, of course, is “Give yourself permission to mess up 10% of the time, and the same for others around you.”
It’s a great antidote for perfectionism, and a great rule of thumb for life.
Begin by saying that’s a good thing, ergo your essay is provocative — the best kind. I hope it’s chosen by NPR for the program and that you get to read it on the air.
The question it provoked in me results from noticing that you counterpoise “doubt” and “certainty,” which led me to ask are “doubt” and certaincy’s opposite, “uncertainty” equivalent?
According to the most common useage, I suppose so. But nothing’s simple in life — there’s at least four definitions of “doubt” the noun. Probably more for the verb form. No wonder there’s so many varied responses couched in nicety. (Add mine.)
Your essay seems to focus on the synonym “uncertainty” that we use when we have an unsettled mind, an un-made up mind.
Unfortunately, doubt (as has been pointed out in the thread comments) connotes a wavering of mind, associated with waffling these days, a lack of determination, as in being undetermined. As I said, undesirable qualities in our current times.
Then, there’s the “doubt” that’s associated with the inclination to disbelief, whether in matters of faith or fact. In the first case, the tendency is to associate that application with rational or reasoning thinkers. In the second case, the tendency is to associate the application with conspiracy theorists.
The problem with deciding which meaning of doubt to hold to in regards to your essay is fraught with the very nature of the word itself. “Doubt” remains an unsettled point.
Further splitting hairs, perhaps that’s why I choose to believe in “uncertainty” over “doubt.” It has all the beauty of being vague, ambiguous, and liable to change. And none of the ugliness associated with flip-flopping and conspiracies. It merely remians questioning — so much easier!
I intentionally used both the terms “doubt” and “certain” before of their multiple meanings.
For example, in the central part of the bit, where I’m repeating “certain people,” I’m hoping that the reader will get both the connotation of “people who are certain” and “a select group of people.”