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The Simple Answer Is There’s No Simple Answer
Why so difficult to understand?
There’s comfort and satisfaction in feeling certain about something. Generally, we don’t like uncertainties. Knowing an answer, knowing what to do and how to do it, allows us to orient ourselves to our world and feel good about ourselves.
As Augustine said, we know certain basic, simple answers, such as that we exist, that we are capable of knowing, and we love that we know these answers. (Confessions) Even philosophers, who are steeped in wonder and questions, enjoy having answers.
We all try to make things simpler because simple answers are comforting. The problem is that simple answers are rare, if they exist at all. How many questions have simple “yes” or “no” answers? How many problems we face have a simple solution?
Simplification: From Dogma to Mansplaining
Knowing how much people crave simple answers, people and institutions have been eager to supply such answers. It’s a win-win transaction: it spares the recipients from the effort of thinking for themselves, and it gives the suppliers more power and control.
The concept of dogma goes back to the ancient Greeks, though they probably didn’t invent the practice of supplying the masses with definite…
