Nobody hates pessimism as much as I do, because I am an inveterate optimist – both genetically and by upbringing. But there are things around that I can’t help considering without a sense of doubt and ambiguity.
Take, for instance, the information that hits our brains and nervous system via the media of mass communication: it is practically impossible for an average consumer to discern between truth and falsity while taking in the words flowing from the politically engaged journalistic lips. One can’t possibly digest everything that the world’s info-machine produces on a daily basis, hence we depend on what we are told by the so-called ladies and gentlemen of the press. And here is exactly where the problem comes: there is no way to make a winning guess about the reliability of the source.
Politics and Politicians! How do we know whether they are telling us the truth or feeding us with lies? One has to be tremendously educated and well-versed in political science to discern between the veracity and mendacity of a glib politician, talking to us in standard terms and trained emotionality, pressing on what they believe is the best way from nowhere to prominence. At the end of the day, we are all politically exploited rabbits and guinea-pigs, forced to patiently endure what the politicians prompt us to do. But we have no way to guess definitively what is good and what is bad.
To survive, one has to have a job, and to make it a decent survival, one has to have a decent job, but no job is hundred percent guaranteed to be in place forever, whether it is within the governmental domain or in the realm of private business.
Yet another uncertainty that haunts us all the way to our last residing place is the vagueness of our education. It is extremely difficult to know, especially in our often-changing times, which path can best take us to the type of education that will someday translate into wellbeing. Doubtful is the knowledge that our teachers give us, because knowledge ages fast and can lose value unexpectedly; doubtful are the diplomas that we are awarded, because their acceptance may well fade away as soon as we pocket them; doubtful are today’s professional skills, because they might be obsolete tomorrow; and doubtful are the job markets where we want to sell our skills, because their content and character can alter in the twinkle of an eye. I don’t even know what is not doubtful in the world of education. Maybe knowledge of the alphabet and multiplication table are more or less steady, but even they might fail if the world continues changing at the pace it is now.
Our national geopolitical stance is uncertain, because we have no idea which option is best. We are just guessing, and we might be winners if we get lucky in this incipient new world order, but just as likely not. It sometimes occurs to the lost mind that God will help. Isn’t this huge uncertainty indigestible?
What about the interminable fight between the belligerent neoliberalism and the defending-itself conservatism? Considering all relevant pros and cons in order to make a decision between the two can lead to headaches and bewilderment. For example, you don’t want anyone hurt due to their sexual orientation, and yet you may encounter odds preventing you from absolutely certainty in attitude. Attitudinal uncertainty!
Are we absolutely certain about the foods we consume or the medicinal ways and means we are faced with? Let’s ask ourselves, and those who supply them to us, the unsuspecting purchasers of those indispensable commodities.
And finally, those gorgeously beautiful Georgian mountains! Who knows what they nurse in their depths as the disasters we cannot cope with!
Is there any chance with all that in mind we can believe that our future is firm and certain?
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
