Being able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times—if it doesn’t drive you crazy, it will make you strong.
Bruce Springsteen
This is one of the quotes from my blog’s Quote Collection. It speaks to me. I’ve always been amazed by my own capacity to believe in conflicting ideas. I think it takes a strong person to learn to manage that, and I think it can have creative applications.
However, it is also a feature that some people have pointed out about Trumpism. Trumpers simultaneously believe that Covid is a hoax and it’s a Chinese bioweapon. They switch back and forth between these two beliefs as fits their narrative of the moment. They believe that Trump is great because he gave us the Covid vaccine and the vaccine is bad. Every life is sacred and we should all have guns so that we can kill. And so forth and so on. I could go on all day about the contradictions in their world view (or, as I inadvertently typed it at first, “contradiction sin,” ha-ha).
So, is the ability to hold contradictory ideas a boon or a bust? Is it a sign of creative thought or of lazy thinking? Maybe it’s both. Maybe being aware of one’s contradictory ideas and attempting to reconcile or balance them is a positive and beneficial thing. And maybe being unaware of one’s contradictory ideas and switching back and forth at whim is lazy, dangerous thinking.
And perhaps we are all guilty of the lazier version at times, and all of us would benefit by a closer examination of our beliefs. I know my beliefs are in need of a good dusting off. The last few years were eye-opening. They left me several new contradictory beliefs to reconcile, not the least of which are the dueling notions that “most people are decent at heart” and “most people are assholes.”