Spencer Hu
Shu2@uwyo.edu
Nobody wants to be wrong, but given that we are not omnipotent, we’re bound to be. Being an indulgently prideful person, I can tell you being wrong is one of my least favorite things next to losing in gaming competitions, but that’s another piece for another day.
I want to avoid being wrong so badly, yet at the same time I hunger for knowledge and truth more than most. It’s with regret that I say that it’s not only impossible to retain both, but perhaps desiring that the two behaviors actually oppose each other.
As of late it’s been really obvious to me that I’m not the only one who pursues these two opposing behaviors, I might just be one of the few that’s willing to acknowledge it.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: an acquaintance of yours starts to tell you about something that a stupid subset of a very legitimate subculture did. They go on to express that they dissent. Nothing about this seems overtly wrong, but there actually is something incorrect about it.
Imagine, I’m part of one school of thought and some other people are part of an opposing school of thought. I scroll through Facebook and I see that a small group of those people of that opposing school of thought goes on a puppy and children punching spree. I go into work the next day and I tell my co-workers about it and how it was wrong. What happened?
When I saw the punching spree I used it as an opportunity to say that that group as a whole is wrong and not only that, but also to say that I must be right because I am not one of them. The problem with this is pretty obvious. I know that my analogy was overblown and unrealistic, but the point is that people often use their limited grasp of another subculture and use it as ammunition bolstering their own thoughts and beliefs. I cannot tell you the number of times people have credited their dissent with groups I belong to by naming obviously flawed arguments that some of the dumber members of my group have made.
When we do this we think we are preserving our comfort and legitimizing our beliefs, but in reality we do a poor job of both. It should be easy to recognize that vocal minorities do not represent the breadth and depth of a group, and that if your avenue of affirming your own beliefs is saying that someone else is stupid then maybe your beliefs need some serious reevaluation. I can’t preserve my comfort and pursue knowledge at the same time, but I can pursue knowledge and be comfortable knowing that I’m trying my absolute best at doing my part in being an educated and active person on the planet.
