Rabbit Holes, All the Way Down - July 6 2022

Rabbit Holes, All the Way Down

July 6 2022

There are truths, half-truths

and illusions.

The things we know

don't know

don't know we don't know.

But I understand

how ignorance is bliss.

How simple-mindedness

would cut through all the angst

and uncertainty,

the ambivalence

wringing of hands

moral panic.

Why bother with mastery

when it's all rabbit holes

that ramify

into even more?

The sweet relief

of leaving the past behind

the future to its own devices,

and planting oneself

firmly in the now.

They say dark matter

occupies most of the universe.

Something we've never seen

measured

characterized.

The brilliant physicists

who model existence

simply waved their hands,

assigning a name

to what seems to be missing.

    . . .  And dark energy?

Don't get me started on that!

I will learn

from this solution;

banish ignorance

by bureaucratic means:

file it away

in some dusty cabinet of names,

sign-off on the paperwork.

Then go on

enjoying my day,

knowing I really know nothing at all

and can contentedly live

with uncertainty.

Because it's almost all dark matter,

and our brief moment in the light

is all we'll ever have.

Not that I can take my own advice. Especially since curiosity is so essentially human, and certainty — the need to know — so basic to peace of mind. And because one of the things that makes us the uniquely human animal is the life of the mind: our ability to visualize the future while learning from the past.

Also, in this benighted age of misinformation, disinformation, and persisting superstition, I revile the idea that all “truths” are equally legitimate, as well as the easy conflation of fact with belief and opinion: some things are knowable, and it's essential that we operate from a shared and accepted set of facts.

Nevertheless, epistemological certainty can be a real bugbear. For example, the devout truly believe they have a direct pipeline to God, who whispers revealed divine truth into their ear. Too much conviction, passion, self-righteousness; and not enough epistemological humility. And to speak more generally, the ability to admit one's ignorance is a fundamental attribute of the open and curious mind.