Ambiguity. What does this imply? I think for many of us this word immediately suggests a lack of clarity or resolution on an issue. I would like to explore this idea and how humans react to it.
I believe that it is hard for people to live with ambiguity. I believe it is a natural desire to want things concrete, clear. We want to know who is right and who is wrong or else we feel cheated. That is why American movies usually present a clear good and bad guy and that ends happily. The bad guy dies (after much mayhem to be sure) and the good guys win. Our aversion to ambiguity comes from a particularly moralist way of viewing the world. We believe that things are clear. People may argue about perspective, sure, but the only reason why they hold on to one perspective, we tell ourselves, is because they are either misinformed, stupid, or downright evil. Our religious thought, our national politics, and our personal relationships are all often marred by the belief that at any one moment one position is completely valid (which we take to be ours) and the other one is dangerously mistaken. This attitude is not specific to conservative or liberal circles, religious or irreligious groups. I believe that the assumption of right and wrong, absolute certainty, and demonization comes from a simple, but powerful emotion: fear. We fear ambiguity and uncertainty. We fear having to face the idea that things are just a lot more complex than we take them to be. We fear that if by giving in to the idea that from another person's perspective they just might be justified, that we give up everything that we have built our lives on. We fear having to face the realization that much of our emotional pain is self-inflicted through our insecurities and not the result of the malice of others. We keep ourselves in bondage, then, by holding too tightly to the chains of right and wrong. I often wonder if we can really say that anybody is truly evil.
Admitting that ambiguity in morality and right and wrong can exist in the world fills us with fear. But I think that this fear is often more the product of pride and self-righteousness than anything else. More often than not we are willing to look at other people who are in an argument and say how irrational they are acting. We tell them, if they would just think for a moment, they would see that both sides should let go of the matter and admit that both sides are a little bit right and a little bit wrong. This changes when we are involved in the argument. We immediately assume the position of victim and if reconciliation does take place it is only the result of us being gracious and forgiving; not admitting that we were a little bit wrong too. The aversion to ambiguity is strongest when it is personal.
