The Doubt Manifesto
Text & images © Paul Ransom
Believe as little as possible as lightly as possible.
I hereby acknowledge that there is little I can confidently declare as absolute fact – because the truth is, in most cases, I quite likely do not know, even if I sometimes think I do.
My knowledge is incomplete and skewed by social, cultural, and cognitive bias; and my worldview coloured by personal and circumstantial factors that nudge me towards certain beliefs and behaviours.
Though I cling to cherished opinion and am guided by core values, I realise that they may one day be shown to be in error or merely a suite of assumption. I have been wrong before and will surely be so again.
I do not claim for myself the mantle of superior wisdom. Neither will I trumpet the virtue of the self-declared critical thinker. I am neither awake, nor Woke. Indeed, I may be asleep – a sheep – at the wheel. For all my smarts, I could well be a fool.
I accept that while trying to educate myself I will misread, misinterpret, and misjudge. I will not access all the relevant data; and even if I did, I would not be equipped with either the patience or the technical expertise to properly sift and sort it.
I acknowledge that ‘doing my research’ does not mean watching a few You Tube videos. I also understand that information I regard as credible, or as coming from multiple sources, may originate from a single source and simply be a repeated assertion.
Just because I heard it a thousand times does not make it true.
Conversely, that which I take to be propaganda or narrow ideological catechism is not necessarily false. It is conceivable that those with whom I have the strongest disagreement may have something to teach me.
Therefore, I will not take part in your jihad. Neither will I vilify your villains or sanctify your saints. I shall not scorn your evil elites, extol your virtuous majority, sign up for your paradigm shift or join your new world order. My hat is not white, my vest is not yellow, and my age is not golden.
Yet my blood, once spilled, shall run red. As will yours.
I may know precious little, but this I have observed: liberators have a history of becoming oppressors. Saviours enslavers. Even our highest ideals must run the gamut of our famous frailties.
When we dreamt of gods, we woke to find them human.
Across the millennia we have sought certainty and craved control, hungered for justice and uplift, prayed for deliverance…and yet here we are, still seeing demons in the eyes of the other. We the good, they the bad. The dark fantasy that fuels a hard reality. Divide and conquer.
Of this story I am sure of only one conclusion. Cruelty.
Therefore, I choose doubt as the kinder option; accepting that it too may be a form of folly. For one hawk may overwhelm a hundred doves.
Yet, even in my vast unknowing, I shall place my bets on the possibility of better angels, rather than pledging my troth to the certainty of a suicidal surety.
Belief is so often a willing blindness. Doubt is an opportunity to see anew.
Here again, I pause. Doubt is a discipline, not an ideology. To walk the middle path, we are sometimes required to visit the edge. I can but hope to know when doubt is best replaced by faith.
Moderation in all things, including moderation.
PS: An explanatory footnote
Regular visitors to this site will likely be aware that I have addressed the topic of contemporary ideological certainty on numerous occasions. They will perhaps think I am repeating myself here.
However, in the middle of 2023 I was inspired to create The Doubt Manifesto by an alarming uptick in the zealous outpourings of friends and colleagues alike. I was hearing normally sensible people speak of their ‘enemies’ in terms befitting the extremist mania of Nazis, suicide bombers and medieval pitchfork mobs. This, I confess, was difficult to hear.
Yet, doubtful though I remain, I feel sure I am not the only one troubled by the hyper-polarised tenor of 21st century political and cultural discourse. Thus, at the risk of sounding like every other no-name voice of reason on the internet, I ask of you this: if you too have your doubts and are not driven to participate in the death-spiral of holy war insistence, please share.
Most likely our humble objection will be as a whisper to a scream – but, for what it’s worth, we will have said our piece, and not simply left the stage to those who would thunder (and blunder) us into a storm of tribal violence and righteous tyranny.
Thank you.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
Bertrand Russell: from The Triumph of Stupidity, 1933
As If You Were Listening 