Friday, November 14, 2003
The absence of certainty
As I surf the internet, there is one quality that I find in abundance: certainty. This is especially true of blogs, which represent perfectly the democratic nature of the internet. Everybody has opinions, beliefs that they want to express to the world, and now they have their medium to do so. But can we be certain, of anything?
JM Coetzee, in Elizabeth Costello, says: "Things can be true… even if one does not believe in them, and conversely. Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. As happens when one writes: believing whatever has to be believed in order to get the job done."
I am not certain of anything; and even of that, I am not certain. I haven’t begun this blog to propagate my views for public consumption – I will be quite happy if no one but me chances upon this site – but to scribble down notes, random thoughts that may or may not take me to any kind of certainty about anything. We cannot, of course, afford to be ambiguous about our world – we would live in an amoral and chaotic – and essentially, irresponsible – state if we did not have a sense of black or white. Everything cannot be gray – even if it is. This is where I shall attempt to explore the spaces between black and white, and the particular contradictions that bother me, and define me.
JM Coetzee, in Elizabeth Costello, says: "Things can be true… even if one does not believe in them, and conversely. Belief may be no more, in the end, than a source of energy, like a battery which one clips into an idea to make it run. As happens when one writes: believing whatever has to be believed in order to get the job done."
I am not certain of anything; and even of that, I am not certain. I haven’t begun this blog to propagate my views for public consumption – I will be quite happy if no one but me chances upon this site – but to scribble down notes, random thoughts that may or may not take me to any kind of certainty about anything. We cannot, of course, afford to be ambiguous about our world – we would live in an amoral and chaotic – and essentially, irresponsible – state if we did not have a sense of black or white. Everything cannot be gray – even if it is. This is where I shall attempt to explore the spaces between black and white, and the particular contradictions that bother me, and define me.
amit varma 1:55 am
