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Let Me Think About It.

October 1, 2020 by Exangel

by David D. Horowitz.

“I’m not sure yet.” “I still have some reservations.” “Could you hold off for a week until I research the issue to address some lingering doubts?” “I’ve decided—sort of. I need to check a few last details before I decide, though. Would that be okay?”

Of course! Take your time, and make sure you feel good about your decision. I’d rather you acknowledge than repress your doubts.

Indecision’s sources can be difficult to trace. It can, indeed, reflect equivocating cowardice, but it can also reflect the courage to face complexity and synthesize it into one’s larger understanding. And it might reflect both concurrently.

Personally, I’d rather let people indulge doubt than pressure them into half-sincere expressions of consistency. Isn’t that how so many religious, political, and aesthetic groups go awry? Consider, for example, the medieval church’s intolerance of “heresy” and the consequent Reformation that exploded across Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Pressuring adherents into dogmatic commitments might initially seem to provide community, belonging, and order, but more often than not it causes later friction and fracture. And isn’t this how so many romances, marriages, and friendships go bad? Pressuring someone to be “all in” rather than accepting their doubts might initially deepen commitment, but eventually it deepens tension.

Indulging others’ doubts and curiosity almost defines tolerance, and tolerance can only thrive when those in power understand the importance of dissent in appreciating life’s complexity. Dogma does not like dissent. Dogma might not want to hear COVID-19 is not finished in two months. Dogma might not want to hear compelling evidence proving the dangerous prevalence of global warming. And dogma might not want to listen to dissidents from countries with communist and collectivist economies speak of hunger, torture, and corruption they’ve witnessed and endured. “Reality” is a slippery term notoriously difficult to define—but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reality. Dogma-defying complexity doesn’t simply disappear because we don’t like it. And the more we avoid, evade, lie, and pretend, the worse a problem typically becomes. Witness President Trump’s absurd denials in February at the onset of COVID-19’s rampage across the United States. He never said “I might be wrong,” as he thought that would make him look weak and would undermine the economy and his reelection chances. “I’m not sure” to the know-it-all is for wimps, cowards, equivocators. And such a person loathes when others encourage doubt, equating doubt with disloyalty. Message to dogma: doubt is not a synonym for disloyalty, and loyalty to oneself need not entail betrayal of others.

So, how can we simultaneously cultivate the strength to decide and commit—and to doubt, listen, tolerate, and pause? Well, first we can give ourselves and others permission to change views. We can decide—and then realize we overlooked crucial evidence or misperceived cost, difficulty, time commitment, logistics, scheduling, or philosophical challenges. And it’s okay to back off to reconsider. This need not entail cowardice or disloyalty. “Sort of” and “maybe” and “I might be wrong” often lead us to a deeper, better, more empathetic place. We are here to evolve, not simply find a rut in which we can comfortably conform. And, second, when someone disagrees with us, we needn’t react as if it were a personal affront (see ninety percent of blog comment threads these days) but civilly encourage honest response. For, more often than not, “sort of” leads us to a better place than does “I’m sure.”

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Fall 2020: Sort Of.

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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