A Satisfactory Philosophy of Ignorance

In the words of the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell…

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.

Isn’t it true that most of the trouble in the world tends to derive from cocksured-ness? That is, a dogmatic (or quasi-dogmatic) belief that I am right and the rest of you, well, can either join up, or be annihilated.

Look at the problems in the Middle East, for example. This is an entrenched conflict that has gone on for thousands of years at the expense of millions of lives. And why? Because each side is cocksure of the righteousness of their respective dogmatic opinions about the origins of the universe! And neither really has a clue.

Look at that dude in Syria, Bashar al Assad. Here you have a dictator so full of himself that he’s willing to sacrifice the population of his country (or, at least the part that doesn’t agree with him) just to stay in power.

Right now we have a president in our country that I’d describe as similarly cocksure. And most of what he’s so sure of, such as the idea that global warming is some kind of liberal hoax, he’s dangerously wrong about! And people and planet will suffer for that…believe me.

Wouldn’t it be better if these cocksure leaders had the capacity to look themselves in the mirror and think the novel thought that maybe, just maybe, I might be wrong.

Did any of those New Yorkers going to work that fateful morning of September 11, 2001 have the foggiest notion of what was about to unfold? Did the U.S. government, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the Pentagon? No, not really. That day we all had to come to national grips with how uncertain life can be, didn’t we?

Does all this mean that there is no grand design, or purpose to it all? Are you kidding me…how would I know?

However, on some spiritual level I do sort of believe that there might be. But I don’t know what and I doubt seriously that I ever will. I believe maintaining a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance in the face of so much that is unknown is the better way to go.

So, what am I really saying this morning? That we should all just stay in bed?

No, better to repeat this…

I relax my consciousness…

I un-set my heart…

I wear the world as a loose garment…

I learn to dance on the constantly shifting carpet.

There now, with that said, the uncertainty tends to loose its edge over you.

You are now ready for it.

You are now armed with that satisfactory philosophy of ignorance that will help you make it through another day without doing any real cocksure harm.