Our relationship with mystery- the things we don’t know- gives birth to some of the worst things we’re capable of, as well as the best versions of ourselves.
We’re hardwired to reduce uncertainty. It’s a strategy for survival. But it’s too easy to take it too far.
Dan Kahan once measured people’s belief in human activity causing climate change and found only a very weak correlation between agreement and competency in statistics, data, and scientific studies. Political affiliation was a much stronger correlation. If somebody identified as conservative, they were over 90% more likely to disagree. In other words, knowledge seems to only give you more motivation and tools to justify what you want to believe.
One of the most common symptoms of privilege or being in a dominant social group is that you’re way more likely to assume expertise in stuff outside of your experience without batting an eye.
When our relationship with uncertainty is unhealthy, it leads us to meet the new and unknown with prejudice, fear, and assumptions, rather than wonder and curiosity. There’s a knee-jerk rejection of the chance that the world could be anything than what we thought it was. It turns faith into dogma. It turns collective experiences into conspiracy theories. It turns pride in your identity into assuming the inferiority of everyone else’s.
Boarding schools. Phrenology in 18th century textbooks. Talking heads on news channels. Doctors dismissing the complaints of Black patients. ‘The economy’ as a justification for everything. Microaggressions where someone’s a little too confident about how much they know about your origin.
The opposite of this is creating a healthy relationship with the unknown.
There’s something irresistible about a faith that’s all about surrendering to a love that’s so much bigger than anything you can intellectualize. A person who radically accepts others without judgement. A relationship that leaves room for all the mysteries of another person, no matter how long you’ve known them. Somebody who sees the way the world changes with sincere curiosity rather than fear.
Mystery