I've been noticing a trend rising in our society lately that disturbs me, and I'm quite sure I'm not the only one. I'm talking about the increased violence, aggression, prejudice, and general dichotomous divide regarding any given issue. So many people anymore, it seems, are becoming more and more ardent in their support of one side of an issue or another. It doesn't matter if the issue is Christianity vs. Atheism, Evolution vs. Creationism, Gay Marriage vs. "Traditional" Marriage, Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, Gun Control vs. Gun Freedom, Tax Reform, Education Reform, Welfare, or anything else. The bottom line is that the rift between any two opposing sides seems to be growing, and fewer and fewer people are willing to reach across the aisle. My question is: Why? Why is this the new norm in our society? How did things get like this? And by seeing the same behavior exhibited from both sides on any such debate, I've noticed a trend among so many, particularly the most ardent supporters of any such cause that's at the root of all this: certainty.

So many people anymore, it seems, get to a point where they just stop questioning and accept whatever they hear or whatever answers their own brains come up with that makes them feel good inside. They've decided at some point that they have all the pertinent information, that they need to learn nothing new, and have enough to go on to make the best decision possible, even if that decision is quantifiably detrimental to themselves and others around them. Too many people make the mistake anymore that subjective certainty equals objective reality, but it doesn't. And when people take their certainty and run with it, that certainty breeds arrogance. Arrogance breeds hate. And hate breeds violence.

But our world is so utterly vast and complex that no one person can collate ALL the data necessary to make the best decision regarding such high-profile issues like the topics I listed above. It just takes a level of mental energy that I highly doubt any one human being can possess, at least until a generation or two from now when technological advances may expand the current limits of our brains. But just because there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in one's philosophy doesn't mean that Horatio should just give up. It's imperative both for the sake of an ever-improving society and for the sake of fulfilling our own natural inclinations that we continue to push the envelope of our own scope of knowledge.

But even continually challenging our own preconceptions requires a strong level of mental energy and maturity. And yeah, such efforts may come more easily to some than others, but why aren't we all still trying to do it regardless? Honestly, I think our current educational system is to blame. Growing up, I would go sit in classes where I and the rest of the students were generally quiet while the teacher was teaching. We were being fed all of life's answers that the government decided we needed to know, and the vast majority of questions we were asked were in the form of tests. Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: You have a teacher that asks a question aloud in the classroom, the teacher goes quiet while waiting for an answer, and no one speaks up. I can remember that happening multiple times all throughout my schooling, because we as students got so accustomed to the idea that we were supposed to sit down, shut up, keep our heads down, and listen. And shame on you if you dared to ask a question to that poor, exasperated teacher. The very notion that a teacher--an adult, an unquestioned superior--should ask US, the STUDENTS, for an answer or an opinion, seemed so antithetical to the norm we were taught to obey that we were AFRAID to answer. We had been raised to understand that we knew nothing, and as such, our ideas and opinions were worthless...at least until we graduated. Then we knew everything, because we were told that we had learned everything we ever needed to know.

This is not how education should work. The very word "educate" has roots in the Latin "educere," meaning "to bring out; to lead forth." It's the idea that students should be able to come to correct conclusions themselves through prompting and evidence given by the teacher. A true education is built far more on questions than it is on statements, and children by nature are extremely inquisitive with sponge-like minds ready to absorb and examine everything presented to them. But our current system shuns the asking of questions beyond an exceedingly minimal extent. This is just one of so many reasons why I am such a heavy supporter of education reform, hypocritical as it may sound to my opening statements here. We need to encourage youth to continue to ask questions, and we need teachers with the constitution to answer all such questions to the best of their ability. By teaching kids to stop asking questions after a certain point, we are robbing them of a certain quality of character necessary for the progression of society, and I fear that unless we change this soon, the rift I mentioned above will only get worse.

Just like Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" was written as a wake-up call to McCarthyism in the 1950s, I think that John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" is a similar wake-up call to the dangers in today's society of having too much certainty. I have never apologized for asking questions, and I strive on a daily basis to challenge my own preconceptions, take in new data, and evaluate the world so I may grow as a person. And after 28 years of this sort of mentality, I believe that everyone could benefit from setting aside ego and asking more questions. It hasn't always been easy, and I've come to accept ideas that are completely contrary to what I previously saw and believed about the world. Don't invest your entire sense of self in a single ideology, especially when that ideology cannot be proven to be true or can even be proven to be untrue. Don't be afraid to shatter your own world view; the mosaic you build with some of the left-over shards could end up more fascinating than anything you had previously imagined. And if we can continue to question our own world and ourselves during our lifetimes, that just means that we'll have come that much further as guides for the next generation when they start questioning everything.