The Search for Certainty
There is a strong pull in our VYCA-Plus world to be rigid rather than being flexible and open to new perspectives and practices. We are likely to become stubborn If we are not prepared for a high level of uncertainty and for new learning, We find one specific way to be in the world and look for other people who think and act in a similar manner. Together, we create a Bubble of Belief. We collectively push for laws that enforce this one way of being in the world and seek to elect those leaders who are just as committed to this one way of thinking and acting. If we can’t elect them in a legitimately recognized manner, then we are likely to join with others in manipulating the existing system or simply imposed our own choices by force. Our rigidity leads to authoritarianism—as a cure for the seeming malady of uncertainty.
The search for Certainty is a major driving force for many people. It is probably the most compelling of the six pathways to serenity. In writing about the quest for certainty, John Dewey (1929) had the following to say:
“When theories of values do not afford intellectual assistance in framing ideas and beliefs about values that are adequate to direct action, the gap must be filled by other means. If intelligent method is lacking, prejudice, the pressure of immediate circumstance, self-interest and class-interest, traditional customs, institutions of accidental historic origin, are not lacking, and they tend to take the place of intelligence.”
We see even in the early 20th Century perspective of John Dewey that the lure of Serenity is present. We can easily replace intellectual assistance with prejudice, immediate pressures, self-interests, customs, etc. that lead us to certainty and the comfort of serenity.
Here in the middle of the 21st Century, our search for certainty might require that we Confine Ourself to a small, confined silo where we can control (and therefore predict) everything. We set up large, thick boundaries between ourself and those who are “other.” (Oshry, 2018). In search of Serenity, we stablish a closed system that can’t sustain itself over the long term. Ironically, this strategy of confinement is aligned with a “modern” approach to management: the focus is on control so that one can predict and subsequently plan and execute without disruption. I am reminded of the witch in the musical Into the Woods. She confines her daughter in a tower so that nothing can harm her. However, the daughter can’t survive (psychologically) in this closed system and must find a way to escape the tower. Like the witch, we often suffocate those which we love when we seek to find safety and certainty for them.
If we are unable to control and build strong walls and towers, then we must Limit Our Aspirations and house these aspirations in the past: “we have always done it this way and will always do it this way in the future.” This is the perspective of the recalcitrant in Everett Rogers (1962) model of innovation diffusion. The recalcitrant is a person who is resistant to all new ideas. They are never likely to “leave home” and venture into new territory. Actually, in some cases, these recalcitrant often seek out certainty and resist change because they were “burned” in the past by uncertainty when they were trying to introduce something new in their own organization or community. Failure in the enactment of new ideas not only leads to loss of the idea but also to loss of someone willing to try something new.
Download Article 1K Club
