When we look at history, we remember bullet points. Gandhi freed India. Einstein invented relativity. MLK led the civil rights movement. The truth is that those bullet points are just the foamy tip of the wave. The most easily visible part of a far grander process. It’s hard to process the millions of tonnes of water swirling underneath. So more often than not, we don’t.
When we look at ourselves it usually the same. If we succeed, the most easily recognizable component of that success is ourselves. Our decisions. Our actions. But what of the thousands of minute opportunities, privileges, happenstances, coincidences and actions of others, often piling up over generations? It’s too much to compute. Too much to appreciate. So more often than not, we don’t.
The same goes with failure.
But nuance is deeply important. It’s important when judging ourselves. It’s important when judging others. It’s important when understanding history. It’s important when trying to understand an ever more complicated world. Yet it becomes harder and harder to do every day.
So many contemporary issues are tied to a simple lack of nuance, or our own inability and often unwillingness to consider something in detail. We’ve been trained not to since we asked an adult our first question or set foot in a classroom. We’re given singular reasons. Singular answers. Cause-Effect. False binaries.
When we discuss terrorism or violent crime, we’re forced into either/or explanations for ‘why’ someone does something, when the truth is a big uncomfortable mess. When we are confronted with people using language we’re not used to, we cry “Political Correctness”, when often it’s just someone pleading for nuance (or a business identifying, advertising and selling to a more nuanced market). When we see changes in complex systems like the environment, we’re predisposed towards understanding them in simple terms. Global warming? But it’s snowing outside! And when we are talking politics, culture and society, we homogenize people, places and ideas. America is this. Socialism is that. Person A is a saint. Person B is a real piece of shit.
The result is that we exceptionalise certain individuals, ideas and entities positively or negatively and undervalue almost everything else, including each other and ourselves. In this environment it’s easy to see why we place ever more importance on being exceptional, rather than simply being. Is it any wonder we’re so frequently judged or so frequently let down? Is it any wonder we’re descendant into a miserable narcissistic puddle? Is it any wonder we have a mental health crisis? On top of a political crisis? On top of an environmental crisis? On top of an economic crisis? There’s so much information and all we’re doing with it is boiling it down into simpler, less thoroughly verified stories.
This might sound like a bit of a stretch but it reminds me of the collapse of polytheism. A system of explanation crushed under the weight of it’s own ambition. An attempt to be simple that ultimately proved more vulnerable to grievous error the more simple explanations were cobbled together and contrasted with reality.
Just like those ancient civilizations trying to understand the weather, we rarely, if ever, see the totality of a thing, or a person. Most of the time we don’t even understand ourselves, let alone each other. So the very least we can do is acknowledge that fact. Graciously accept our ignorance rather than weaponize it.
Some may interpret this as me advocating the old ‘argument to moderation’ fallacy. The one that says we should constantly compromise. They might read this as saying “there’s no such thing as truth”. But that’s not the case at all. Truth exists. Lies exist. Good exists. Evil exists. And sometimes those things can be essentialised in simple statements. Climate change is real. Fascism is evil. We shouldn’t retreat from those emphatic statements. But understanding those truths, along with everything else, in a meaningful way, in a way that allows us to go forward and create positive change, requires us to consider nuance. It requires a culture of understanding. Not a culture of simple explanations.
Climate change is real, but it’s not simple. It’s a destructive symphony of processes, from the environmental to the economic. Fascism is evil. But it’s not simple. Its loud and quiet, subtle and obvious, insidious and occasionally right out in the open. People can be good. People can be bad. Often the same person can be both. That asshole, might be a victim. That victim, might also be an asshole. If a person succeeds, they deserve commendation. But so does the society that supported them. If they fail, they should ask themselves why. But so should a society that wants to promote success. If a thing is destructive, we should stop it. If someone does evil, we should stop them. We should also attempt to understand it and them. That’s not weakness or apologism. That’s how we stop it happening again. Maybe they don’t ‘deserve’ our understanding. But maybe it’s not just about them. Maybe it’s about all of us.
One of the great problems of our age is the erosion of truth and the spread of disinformation. One of the reasons it has so readily taken hold and spread like an infection is our predisposition towards a satisfying answer that makes our lives simpler and not more complicated. Even other ingredients, like the willful production and spreading of lies, are, at their core a product of the same, but elsewhere. It would be so much easier, if everyone simply thought and acted like me, or towards my benefit. Corruption is easy. Greed is easy. Lying is easy. Living in your own world where you don’t have to understand or care about anyone else, is easy. Telling the truth. Doing good. Understanding others. That’s hard. Credit to anyone who tries. Bonus points to those that succeed. Vigorous opposition couched in nuanced understanding to those that fail or can’t seem to be bothered. It’s often hard to tell.
So here’s the world I want to live in. A world which treats the current period, along with all others, as an opportunity to be better. There’s more information out there at the moment. More than there has ever been. It’s flying in every direction and it’s harder to manage. We’re overwhelmed. Explaining things. Understanding things. Ourselves. Each other. How the world works and what our place in it might be. It’s harder. All those threads. Like the difference between knitting a scarf and weaving a tapestry with a million threads. My hope is that we adapt. That we come out the other end better at managing more. But that means re-evaluating the way we consider everything and everyone. It means re-training ourselves to see in detail. To see nuance.
In the past, I’ve heard people say the seemingly paradoxical phrase “The world is simultaneously simpler AND more complicated than it’s made out to be”. It sounds like nonsense. But it’s true. “It’s more complicated than that” IS a simple truth, with complex foundations. Just like “climate change is real”. It’s always more complicated than that. Luckily, recognizing that fact…is actually fairly simple.