This was last updated July 3rd, 2025. This is just an excerpt of a draft from a few months back.
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” – Voltaire
The 2024 election overwhelmed me. It was the second time I’ve voted. I went to vote with my best friend at a booth near Arizona State campus. When we got there we rushed to the back of the line (likely due to my chronic lateness). I looked around a bit and felt strange. Although I do have a baseline feeling of strangeness—especially around large groups—this was more than that. I put it together that this line forced closeness between split groups and subgroups, even the most dogmatic. They were forced to stand and look at each other. From a relatively neutral and open stance I got to see the physical manifestations of them pressing each other into molds. It doesn’t take much of this to terrify me. It was live action removal of fluidity.
I’ve seen these kinds of molds become unbreakable. It’s nerve-racking because truth grows with an inconceivable amount of layers. Our awareness doesn’t. We don’t have a choice but to meld our incomplete perceptions to make them feel whole. This makes us incomplete as judges. It’s comical how we can still talk like we are the singular voice of morality. Our arrogance is what makes us complete as humans—but is also a necessary component. We have to weigh our limited factors and decide to do things like vote. We have to use (and hopefully trust) our judgment to do this.