How to escape our collective paralysis in ‘these uncertain times’
Author Natasha Lennard discusses how to disrupt the ‘certainties’ that don’t serve us and how to fight back At the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, journalist Natasha Lennard started noticing a constant thrum of collective apprehension, epitomized in the phrase “in these uncertain times”. The expression acknowledged we didn’t have solutions for many of society’s problems: a globally spreading…
Natasha Lennard, a journalist, recently published a book titled On Un/Certainty: The Uses of Doubt in Dangerous Times. In the book, she explores the mindset of collective apprehension that emerged at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. This apprehension was personified by the phrase "in these uncertain times", which recognized that many societal problems remained without solutions.
These problems included the global spread of a virus, the rise of far-right ideologies, and growing inequalities between the wealthy and the poor.
Lennard, who was also an organizer in the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, delves into why this state of uncertainty can lead to paralysis. She argues that not knowing where to begin to address these issues can result in a lack of action, ultimately leading to giving up before attempting to make a difference. In her work, Lennard draws upon the ideas of Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, specifically his 1969 book On Certainty.
She challenges the notion of what is considered "certain" in our current world and questions the authority of those who make such determinations.
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