I Don't Know Anything.

I Don't Know.

What's wrong in saying "I don't know" when I really don't know?

In my opinion, there are two particular types of people who generally never say, "I don't know" under any circumstances.

The first type is politicians.

The second type is denialists.

I'm guessing that most people will agree with me about the first type. No matter whether a politician is charismatic, successful, genuinely honest, good or bad, when confronted with something that they don't know about, they either dodge the question or provide a misguided interpretation. Their ultimate goal is to remain true to their beliefs, a twisted belief, in most circumstances.

Speaking about denialists, not many people will agree with me I'm afraid. However, when confronted with something that a denialist is not full-fledged in, he/she simply gives a misguided interpretation as well. And once again, the ultimate goal is to remain true to his/her beliefs, a twisted belief, perhaps in many occasions.

A person who believes in Science can be a denialist as well, when debating with a superstitious believer, and of course vice versa. Am I right? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that there is no ultimate truth in this world and also that nobody knows everything about anything. There are always several missing pieces in the puzzle.

Let's speak about a third class of people who try to be diplomatic almost in every given occasion. I call them the business class of people - managers, business students aspiring to be entrepreneurs, CEOs and likewise. Most people will never say "I don't know", when confronted with a question in their areas of expertise.

Are they denialists as well? Who am I to judge? However I think it's an interesting question which we shouldn't ignore, particularly at this time when everything around us is becoming mini-corporate worlds.

Rather than trying to figure out who a denialist is, who never acknowledges their flaws, who is right or who is wrong, I'd rather spend some time to think about the reason behind denialism.

Is it a fundamental human nature?

If I ask a question to a talking-monkey, about something that he doesn't know, he'll probably acknowledge it with honesty.

But when surrounded by a hundred monkeys who already know the answer except for this one talking-monkey, then he falls under pressure and will not easily acknowledge it. Am I right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So is it peer-pressure and social-pressure that makes one become a denialist?

Or is it the belief-system, that makes one a denialist?

Let's imagine a family trio. The dad and mom believe that the colour of orange is black. Their son/daughter as well is brought up to believe that the colour of orange is black. What about him/her? He/she is clearly not under any pressure. He/she simply will describe what he/she knows.

Imagine a society with a billion such families who have their own belief-systems, or a similar set of common belief-systems. One would easily get lost without a chance, and the truth would be never be found.

For the most part, I believe that no one can judge others.

So I simply wake up every morning and tell myself, "Today I'll be open to other's beliefs, true or fake, there's nothing wrong in listening to other's beliefs. End of the day, I don't know what's true and what's not".

Also, on a side note, is it wrong to be a denialist or is it wrong to be proud of oneself and the belief-systems, as long as it doesn't affect other people? That's an interesting point of view as well. I'd say that it's rather the question that matters more than the answer, as I believe that there's no one correct answer to this question. It is varyingly subjective.