10. Contradiction and Consistency

I want to return to the notion, mentioned earlier, of contradiction and consistency.  A consistent and unvarying record seems to me to indicate a smallness of mind, a refusal to admit mistakes, and an inability to change.  Logical consistency in all of one’s beliefs may be impressive but is very unreflective of how human beings actually function. To be pro-choice stance regarding abortion but anti-death penalty appears to be a contradiction, but many, perhaps most, people who hold the former also believe the latter as well; the reverse is also true.  Many advocates of rigorous firearm registration are also avid hunters and gun owners. A dyed-in-the-wool capitalist with a strong philanthropic reputation, the animal lover who hunts, the supremely Christian believer who considers natural disasters to be the revenge of an angry god, all of these are far from uncommon.

Contradictions are what make us up.  All of us, without exception. The different contradictions that we perceive in others give richness to our relationships, whether familial or distant.  Yet we harp on neat causal chains in order to define everything we do, insisting, particularly for political figures, that they obey this arbitrary rule.  But we are not syllogistic beings, but dialectic.

Elsewhere I have suggested that it is a mistake to posit the absence of absolute, objective truth; that there indeed are objective truths that, whether attainable or not, guide us and toward which we move.  I very much doubt that the absolute truth in its purist form can be apprehended by human beings, although we may sight it, literally “as through a glass and darkly.” The contradictions mediate and also guide us in a direction toward, away from, or tangential to these absolutes.  However much consistency might appeal, examination of our contradictions, either as internal monologue or externally with individuals we trust, appears to me to be the true path to acceptance, growth, and change. We grow more tolerant through recognizing our contradictions, both within ourselves and in our understanding of our fellow beings.