Dogma

Dog With A Bone

Certitude is an illusion

Humankind has always fixated on our dogmas. From the very first collective of humans, we always craved certitude. Since certitude is all but impossible, dogma is the result. Dogma imposes incontrovertible certitude, regardless of nuance — or even facts.

Original artwork — “A Child Cries” © 2019 by D. Denise Dianaty

The incontrovertible is impossible. Certitude is an illusion to which fearful people cling tenaciously. And, people who cling to that illusion are more susceptible to being convinced by lies. Being lied to makes you mistrust everything. So you end up clinging to the certitude you’ve been convinced is the right dogma even if it’s not true.

If you believe everyone is lying to you, you can only choose the “right kind” of lies — and virulently defend those lies.

The infographic of this poem is shared as the image to retain the layout design preferred by the poet.

About the process for this poem

I actually thought the last line of the poem would be the word “dogmatism” when I composed it back in 2018. That was the plan, anyway. But, when I got to that last “dogma,” I couldn’t not write “dog with a bone.” The line just fell…