Back to the blog. It’s been a good while since my first post where I toyed with the value of learning. I can’t say I’ve been able to hold fast to the somewhat optimistic conclusion I came to, but I do re-arrive at it through frustratingly cyclical tornadoes of thought that seem to be set off by just about anything brought up in class on a daily basis. The question itself though has begun to take a few different shapes. In ASTU (I have to reach for connections somehow) we’ve been delving deeper into the finer aspects of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis through Hillary Chute’s literature review. Today in class we discussed Satrapi’s pointed artistry, specifically her use black and white. We brought up the idea that this is perhaps an attempt to simplify her depictions of violence to increase it’s effect, and thus create a more realistic portrayal despite it being less visually accurate. Since UBC became a thing I’ve developed an annoying problem of abstracting everything I hear, so this led me to thoughts of why we tend to work with black and white on a larger scale of general ideas. This thought has made itself a nice little home in my head over the past while, mainly because of the utopia oriented discussions that have been taking place across classes.
I’ve always believed in good and evil, truth and lies, these kind of opposing forces. It seems like this type of black and white is one of the primary ways in which we understand the world. But, quite obviously, it can’t be that simple. For example, cultural diversity is… good right? But so is unity (for lack of a better word)? So if what I believe to be true and good is different from what you believe to be true and good, is one true and good or are they both? If both are, and so is the grey in between, that means that neither nor the grey are really true. There is no real black and white, just an infinite amount of meaningless grey. So why learn?
I heard a former UBC student Tyler Milley speak tonight about perfectionism. Part of his argument was that perfectionism is one of the contributing factors to destructive and crippling anxiety. When we are perfectionists, searching for perfect ends to our work, seeing everything as black and white, win or lose, life or death, we become burdened by immature extremes on both sides. He said that there is something freeing in the grey. I applied this to how I was approaching my pursuit of the truth and realized that I have been looking for a concrete measuring stick of good and evil, always trying to put what I learn under the microscope of some absolute truth. Yet when I do this it always brings me full circle to the skeptical view of truth itself. Maybe its time I tried to find some of the truths in the grey, because as difficult and dialectical as it could be, it could be freeing.
If you’re looking for a more concrete connection to class, here’s something for you: I think that the idea of the genre testimony lies right in this grey area of truth. As John Locke says, “a credible man vouching his knowledge of it is a good proof: but if another equally credible, do witness it from his report, the testimony is weaker..” , which I think is his intelligent, wordy, scholarly way of saying opposing testimonies create a conversation of seemingly grey contradictory truths that is not altogether worthless.
sources: tylermilley.com, class slides for the John Locke quote