I think I spend an inordinate amount of time in a state of confusion. In fact, if I were to go back and look at the rest of my posts, I’m certain that confusion or it’s equivalent shows up as a constant theme.
The world is a pretty confusing place though. I get that. What I find kind of ironic, is a suspicion that my confusion is a direct result of freedom of action and freedom of choice. Maybe not total freedom, because there are limits to what I can and can’t do. But I still have enough choices to make every day that some level of confusion is inevitable.
I guess what I’m trying to articulate is that having a myriad of choices available can be bewildering. I’ll offer an example that isn’t philosophical or enshrined in some document to illustrate how prevalent the connection is between choice and confusion. I struggle with each and every purchase I make. I struggle because I have so many options. The more expensive the purchase, the more intense the confusion, and I suspect that this dilemma is relatively common.
Not in North Korea though, because they’ve eliminated choice and so no one there is very confused, but North America is a different story. North America is pretty confusing because we have so many opinions, and choices to entertain over our lifetimes. Even after we make a choice, the confusion doesn’t necessarily dissipate, because the available options may leave us with a seed of doubt over whether we made the correct decision. I’ve second guessed every vehicle purchase I’ve ever made and the same goes for all the rest of the shit I’ve accumulated over my life to this point. Hell. it took me a full year of research and visits to dealers to finally decide what kind of boat to buy because there were so many to choose from.
But that’s only part of my confusion, because the choices I have to make aren’t exclusive to material things. There are other choices like voting or a personal philosophy, and once more, freedom makes selecting those things complicated.
I try to do my research whether I’m buying a car, selecting a vacation spot or deciding which asshole gets my vote. But even the process of research is confusing because there are hundreds of opinions for every option, and those opinions can be polar opposites of one another. Fox and MSNBC as just one example. So, regardless of whether a person is selecting a dishwasher or a religion, there’s a necessity for you to formulate an opinion.
Formulating that opinion can be an ordeal and ordeals have a tendency to be confusing. That’s why we call them ordeals. Because they’re difficult and they cause stress and sometimes distress.
I think that some people have decided that the best way to eliminate their confusion is to not do any research. Instead they’ve whipped up a mental brew of prejudice, tradition, bias and ignorance that they demand I respect as equal with someone that did some genuine research. Then to make matters even more bizarre, those same people will expend an inordinate amount of energy defending their ignorance. Even in the face of mountains of opposing facts they still cling to their initial conclusions like a toddler with a favorite stuffed animal.
Because like the stuffed bear, the conclusions they’ve reached provide them with comfort. They don’t have to think and so they’re not confused anymore, and that’s comforting. Also, it’s no coincidence that the gut feelings they’ve substituted for an actual opinion tend to serve their interests. Like demanding an end to a lock-down in the name of freedom, when your real concern is your freedom to get a haircut, or crowd the whole family into I-Hop after church. Screw the hairdresser and the waitress, I’m being inconvenienced and my opinion is drawn exclusively from that inconvenience.
I suppose I could be wrong but that kind of opinion formulation seems appropriate for a grade school playground and inappropriate for a grown ass adult.
So, we all need to grow up and try and think about developing our opinions based on a truism that exists for every being on this planet. Namely, we are locked into a perpetual search. A search for sustenance, shelter, companionship, peace, prosperity and philosophy.
That search comes with an obligation to do our research. If we don’t then we’ve allowed someone else to make our decisions for us, and that in my opinion is the ultimate betrayal of this freedom concept that everyone’s clamoring about. Also, I said the search is perpetual. Cradle to grave. When you’ve stopped searching then it looks to me like you’ve concluded that you have all the answers. Not only that but they’re the right answers, and that seems pretty arrogant in my estimation.
Depending on how you see the world, this perpetual search also means that you have another freedom or obligation. You have an obligation to change your mind. There isn’t any dishonor in developing a new opinion based on new data.
But first, you’re going to have to admit to being confused. You’re going to have to do some research and think things through. That’s the obligatory responsibility that comes with freedom, and I think a lot of people are missing that part of the equation.