Doubt and its creativity
Doubt is most required and it is not equal to “anything goes”.
I happened to read a beautiful, inspiring and provocative quote on a French journal. “Le doute est créatif et la certitude est fasciste” translated roughly as “the doubt is creative and the certitude is fascist”. Let me give a little bit of context; this was a quote that inspired a man (interviewed in that journal, told to him by one of his professors). This man is a simple human being who works in one of the rural areas of France, has a decent salary, and has taken an option to live a sober life because of ecological reasons, and this is also a life that gives him joy. Now coming back to the quote, i should give the meaning of the word fascist, as it’s a very strong word.
Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition
The leaders like Hitler or Stalin surely belongs to that category; many leaders in the contemporary times could also belong to that category, atleast according to some people. And it is strong to say that certitude is a fascist, or a fascist tendency. Most certitudes don’t create enough damage like those fascist leaders.
Doubt shouldn’t be understood as 0% certitude too. Doubt means that I do have a certain certitude about that particular reality, though I am not fully sure. Some statements of certitude (I leave out statements from science here)…
- My leader is a genuinely good person (possibly we can agree on this) and all opinions of my leader is always right. I am certain about it and I don’t entertain a little bit of doubt.
- He is holiest person (genuinely a saintly person) I have ever encountered; and his suggestions and teachings are always perfect.
- She is the greatest scholar on that particular field, and there is no iota of doubt on her opinions; I won’t appreciate any questions against her opinions on that field.
- My parents had the worst parenting styles; I won’t dare to take anything good from their parenting styles or anything from their suggestions regarding the same. Nothing good can come from them in this particular area.
- From the past few experiences, I have concluded all people belonging to that community (not only religious; other options are there too) is problematic and no contact with them is to be entertained by me or my family.
- The best way to live life is to earn and work in Samsung electronics (Forbes listed it as the best employer of 2023) in Finland (happiest country). Is it the certitude?
I can add many more situations and examples. Many of them are very strong viewpoints, but most of them may not be so easily called as fascist. Whether we call in that way or not, it’s a tendency that can be dangerous in many circumstances — best example is seen in the politics where we say Trump or Harris is God incarnate/devil incarnate — or in the church where one person with a certain view on abortion calls the people with different views by any names.
Can doubts still have a place in our faith, in our views, opinions? Can our opinions (or that of our idol) be still transformed? Can doubts encourage creativity, better models of co-operation, development and collaboration? Can doubts (as doubts of children are encouraged) be one of the pathways to creativity and higher potentials?
A good summary to avoid fascist tendencies and tendency of self-doubt (not doubt itself) is given by the following quote
NB :
- If you still think doubt and certitude are the only two options (like black or white), please throw away whatever I wrote as rubbish.
- Self-doubt is not the same as doubt as mentioned in this article.
