Life in A Paradoxical World

By Jeffrey M. Bowen

A paradox gets our attention because it upsets logic and expectations.   By definition, it states a proposition that seems self-contradictory, yet really expresses a possible truth.

Some examples are deceptively simple.   For instance, I could tell a friend that nobody goes to a particular restaurant because it is always too crowded.  A boy could be warned not to go near the water until he learns how to swim.  Or a parent might complain to a teacher, I know you haven’t taught my child anything because he hasn’t learned anything.  

 Various puzzlers can be found throughout literature, science, and religion.   In his classic Animal Farm, George Orwell tells us that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu makes us hesitate by saying, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”  Historians explain how history repeats itself.  Still we selfishly manipulate the obvious.   In medicine, drugs we develop to reduce pain can cause death.  Ironically, we must invent other drugs to reverse our addictive demise.      

Revealing truths lie behind many of these apparent contradictions.   One tries to convince us that learning is a lost cause.  The more we learn the less we know.  What?  Should it not be the reverse?  Why would we spend billions of dollars and years educating ourselves to know less?

 The answer is that knowledge is endless.  The more we study to acquire and use it, the more we discover how much we don’t know.  Maybe this is why all of us should become lifelong learners.    

To continue with learning, common sense suggests that delving deeper into a topic and becoming a specialist is the best way to become an expert.   In some ways it certainly is.  When the pipes break, I want a plumber who really knows what they are doing.

 On the other hand, generalists excel as innovators and predictors of the future.  Those who build competencies across a wide range of fields as the world grows more complex can deduce their way to creative conclusions.  Too much knowledge may hamper versatility and ingrain fixed habits.

   Another paradox tempts us to think we are making progress toward some important goal because we are learning more and more about the method to get there.  Not so fast.  This conclusion is shaky for two reasons.

 First, we accumulate biases and misconceptions along the way, and as others regularly add new ideas to the mix, it becomes necessary to unlearn before we can learn.  By reorganizing or updating our knowledge base, we can clear our mindset and restart.

  A second problem is the tendency for goals to become our final destination.  Once achieved, we sort of forget about them.  The better approach, say experts, is to focus on habits.  They are self-renewing, and they compound themselves into lasting results.

Entire books are written about the paradoxes of health and medicine.  Unquestionably we are producing miracles by means of gene therapy, lifesaving drugs, and innovative diagnostic equipment.  But are we all victims of medical extortion?   We spend nearly a fifth of our gross domestic product on healthcare, amounting to $3 trillion annually.  On average, other countries spend half of what we spend per person, yet we deliver worse health care outcomes than any other developed country.  There are no easy political answers, but this much we know:  When profits trump compassion, we confront an unhealthy paradox.    

Budgetary reality also impinges on the field of education.   To illustrate, class size has been debated for years.  Reducing class size should verifiably improve student achievement using standardized measures.  It does, particularly when instructional methods are tailored to the change.  However, smaller classes require more teachers which is a comparatively expensive solution.  Besides, improvements in standardized test results are a suspicious measure of real learning.  As a result, debates about cost efficiency and effectiveness heat up during budget season.   

 Looking beyond these particular examples, our paradoxical world plays havoc with emotions.  One of my favorites is about loving because it tests our understanding of who or what we may try to control.  Think about this:  if you love someone, let them go.  If they return, they were always yours, and if they don’t, they never were.