Blind Certainty

One of the harmful effects of Americans' response to Covid is that we've lost our sense of probity. Integrity, honesty, and trust have all been victims, whether we want to admit it or not. It's not just the politicians and bureaucrats, but some of our most important and trusted institutions. And many in the general population have paid and are paying the price. Almost from the start, misinformation, disinformation, and lies (You can sort out the differences yourself.) were started and repeated, fed to the American people. Some of this was just because there was much "the experts" didn't know. I understand. They were making their best guesses. But some of it, I am convinced, was deliberate for whatever reasons. Social distancing (I still hate that term!) and masks were initially intended to "flatten the curve," that is, to prevent our medical facilities from becoming overwhelmed. They weren't meant to prevent Covid, but to let more people get sick later. Again, the concern was overwhelming hospitals and medical personnel. What was it, "fifteen days" to do so? We all know how that went. We bought into the most obvious misinformation. I guess individuals can decide for themselves how disingenuous or untruthful it was, deliberate or honest mistakes. Contradictions and lies repeatedly showed themselves, but no matter. People stayed away. They put on ineffective masks. Much of America was shut down by overzealous (eager?) politicians and bureaucrats. Covid aside, how many businesses were destroyed with the accompanying financial devastation weighing on millions of people? Our children were far more dangerously hurt--socially, psychologically, educationally--than by anything the virus was going to do to them. Yet, undergreat pressure from "the experts," including the media, we agreed and consented to the dishonesty. Americans seem to no longer possess the ability to challenge. They are told obvious untruths and willingly repeat rather than question them. The many flip flops didn't lead them to ask, "Hey, wait a minute? You said something and now that that isn't so, you changed your tune." In effect, they are cooperating or at least condoning evil, perpetuating it. Those who resist(ed) are and were, if not ignored, at least marginalized or ridiculed. Some of the resisters were not quacks, but highly qualified and recognized experts in the medical community. (Well, at least they were!). For many people, their ability to recognize reality, especially to tell right from wrong, has been eroded. So readily, without thinking about the consequences it seems, Americans have made it relatively easy for the powers-that-be to control them. This was something about which both George Washingto =n and Abraham Lincoln warned us. Perhaps worse, our beliefs that have been molded by misinformation and disinformation have become embedded in certainty. Go ahead, try to have a serious conversation about all this, the last two years or more under the Covid dictatorship. How many people who challenged the new status quo, regardless of its very tenuous assumptions and results, have been "canceled?" They and their thoughts are not to be taken seriously, if considered at all. This blind certainty to follow, again often blindly, what we are told has helped to create a more and more close-minded society. That is very dangerous to a country founded on the principles of our Founding Fathers. The late novelist David Foster Wallace once described this as "amounting to an imprisonment [of the mind] so total that the prisoners don't even know they are locked up." Frightening indeed! We have become not only dismissive, but disdainful of opposing, contrary ideas. The ability or willingness to listen to differences of opinions (in all areas, not just Covid-related) has disappeared. Opponents and challengers have had their character questioned. How hilarious (but not really) that is in that what we have come to not only accept, but embrace--that is, the worse of character--from our political and other leaders, including Presidents, and institutions. It takes courage to listen, especially to challenges to our "blind certainty." That is one of the most disturbing developments about the evolution of our educational and cultural institutions. One step that needs to be taken is to realize that sometimes there are no definite answers. I have repeatedly written and said over many years that believing is not the same as knowing. Related is that we think we have the ability to always identify "the right people," that is, "the experts," who can provide definite answers, which may not even exist. Not only might we not be right in our thoughts and beliefs, but those "right people" might also be wrong. Sometimes, has history teaches us, the truth is where we find it, not where we want it to be. OF course, some folks might hold opposing views out of ignorance or even to promote an agenda, perhaps with nefarious or evil motives. But we might also do well to remember and accept that differing opinions can be the results of principled reasoning. We may or may not know or even guess a person's motives. But history also teaches that people can legitimately interpret experiences and evidence differently. Or something like that......