Can We Ever Truly Have No Idea?

This question struck me late at night. Somehow, it seems obvious, an unspoken fact that some things we just know nothing about. Phrases like “I have no idea” or “that’s totally out of my league” or “that’s rocket science” are just common flips of the tongue for us all. But when I stop and sit down with the idea, I realize that no sentient being can ever possibly have absolutely no idea about anything. As a part of this living and breathing universe, we have bought ourselves a token of relation. One that is indeed universal.

As a part of this living and breathing universe, we have bought ourselves a token of relation.

A baby born from the womb may not ever have heard a word of language through the passage of air. But the baby, by token of being alive, has the ability to communicate. This means one thing, that it knows the essence of what language is about without ever having heard or spoken a word of it. A man, raised in a community of men who has never seen a woman in his life may not have a conception of a woman, but he sure as hell has a conception of a man. This means that when asked, “What is a woman?” the man can respond, well she’s nothing like what’s around here. And so the man has an idea of something that he supposedly was to have “no idea” about.

This begs the question, is then the thing we do not have any idea of, that which we do not have an idea that we don’t have an idea of? Are the only things that we can be entirely in the dark about, the things that we have no ability to have a thought of? It may seem so, but this is something that we cannot make any conclusions on. Why? Because we have no conception of what we do not have a conception of. But therein lies the same paradox which led us to the conclusion we had before. If you know that you have no conception of that of which you have no knowledge, then you know that that thing cannot be something of which you have knowledge. And so the unknown becomes a known unknown. Former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld famously said, “There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns.” He said that it sounded like a riddle, but it wasn’t. It was a serious, important matter. Which is another way of saying, these unknown unknowns are something we should worry about.

“There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns.”

Now here is the red tape. The worry. That which we do not know and cannot possibly conceive is what should make us worry. This logic I do not understand. If it is something that we cannot conceive of, then how do we know we are to worry or not worry about this thing? If we worry about that which we do not know, then by equal rights we should worry about what we do know.

If we worry about that which we do not know, then by equal rights we should worry about what we do know.

Because what we do know leads us to know what we do not know. So therefore we should always be worried about everything we know and do not know. And if worry is all pervasive, then it ceases to be worry. It just becomes the state you are. The problem is, worry can only exist if there is a lack of worry to contrast it with. Therefore you cannot be forever worried, but you cannot be never worried. And if worry cannot be avoided, then why do anything about this worry at all? You see then that it is natural to be worried about that which is not known, but it is just as natural to worry about everything which is known. Which means that the red tape is not really the worry, it is the fact that we believe that the worry is the red tape.

Which means that the red tape is not really the worry, it is the fact that we believe that the worry is the red tape.

It is our mind which makes the problem which we believe we need to solve. And this is the same with the “problem” of not having any idea about something.

Often we use the fact that “I know nothing about this” or “this is totally new territory to me” to excuse ourselves from ever starting on something. And this is the same case of the red tape not being the thing we are looking to start itself, but the fact that we see it as red tape at all. If there is one thing to take away from this writing it is this:

You, just by being you, are a universal token. One that can be used in any part of this universe and is accepted by all. And that token, is never out of place. It is right where it is meant to be.