Yesterday we took a taxi to vote early for the provincial election. When we arrived at the poll, the taxi driver said he didn't know who to vote for and asked us who we liked. That's a big ask, not easy. Do you vote for the incumbent who put beer in the corner store, and finished up with a $200 cheque to convince you he knows what he's doing? Or do you vote for values, thoughtfulness, respectful compassion and conscience, all of which will be proven as a person grows into the job, though not before, because nobody knows what they're doing with the problematic and conflicted collection of issues that arise in running a government.
Even with good will and experience, nobody is going to get things done right because what's right for you is wrong for me. Never mind the beer. I want cheaper chocolate. Yet politicians pretend to know what they are doing even before they understand the impossible complexity of the task. Don't trust certainty.
So Dennis, why are you so certain that certainty can't be trusted?
Ah! You caught me. Good for you. It's true that the politicians are giving certainty a bad name while scrambling for votes. For sure, being certain is why the braggarts are in charge. On the other side of this issue, uncertainty could leave a person weak, indecisive, unable to commit to action, pusillanimous. (The word of the day.)
We won't vote for pusillanimous.
Somewhere between certainty and uncertainty, there must be a happy compromise, maybe humble confidence. As it happens, I am not the first person to put those words together. Check out the link in the footnotes.
You won't hear much about humble confidence in the election campaign. If it's there, it's silent while trash talk and insults vie for attention. You can't trust that stuff.
Let's think more deeply about trust. Trust in what: science, statistics, ideas, beliefs, creed, justice, luck, fate, fantasy, fairness, loyalty, retribution, conscience, compassion, the experts, God, whatever?
From the pulpit we hear about faith, which is something like trust in God or values and principles. However, according to Mark Twain, "faith is believing [trusting] what you know ain't so"; in other words, faith is unreasonable trust in intuition, myth, fantasy, or a collective lie. He was poking fun at the faithful, trying to start an argument by scoring the first point.
On the other hand,
we can trust humble confidence.
If confidence fosters arrogance
while humility leads to pusillanimity,
then when combined, each improves the other.
Confidence with humility
transforms arrogant certainty
into assurance that there is
something more we can learn.
Humility with confidence
pushes past pusillanimity
stirring us to ask questions,
risk answers,
try harder, evaluate,
think deeper,
understand better,
because we can.
How to Be Humble and Confident (According to 9 Experts): Human Window
Arctic Climate Collapse: Just Have a Think,
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