# FerARepasser chronicles-Marc Münster

Asking the right questions is not enough; it is still necessary to know what to do with the answers obtained.

In this period of uncertainty where the number of questions asked of thousands of specialists has exploded, what have we done with the answers obtained?

The Internet and bookstores are full of books on the art of questioning. Good scientists are associated with the ability to know how to formulate the right questions; the same goes for good philosophers; skillful questioning is considered a key skill for successful negotiation. In short, we deploy a lot of energy in the art of questioning.

In view of this, we pay much less attention to how we use the multitude of answers obtained. What do we do with it? Do we know how to process them to deduce actions? Do we know how to organize them, combine them, compare them, put them into perspective in a conscious way? What do we do when several answers seem to contradict each other?

Do we still know how to navigate this gray and exciting zone that lies between certainty and systematic questioning? How to reconcile the science that questions and the science that answers?

I suggest that we take a look at the ways in which we process the answers to our questions in three phases, or in three landscapes.

The pyramids of knowledge

As a child, at school, or even in the way we learned our trades, we generally consider knowledge and the answers to our questions to be consistent. Stone by stone, we contribute to a monumental edifice of "the truth", in which each answer or new answer must be turned like a piece of puzzle or Tetris until it finds its place. We visualize knowledge as a virtual pyramid whose components we seek, sometimes with areas to explore in depth and underground passages that are not always accessible. Every time we make a new discovery, the pieces fit together. And when we find a piece that doesn't match, we then adapt our pyramid plans to match the new reality. Thus, our pyramids of knowledge become more and more monumental, and their interiors both better and better known and more and more complex.

The problem is that our pyramids are increasingly blocking the horizon from us, and we are all working on slightly different pyramids. The more our pyramid grows, the more we trust its truth, and the more we tend to no longer consider the pieces that do not fit the mold, or even get rid of them. There is a great risk that our pyramids will transform our knowledge into convictions (I have already talked about this a little here). And we start filing replies to force them in, we do makeshift repairs, we send replies that don't meet our needs back to their sender.

The pyramids and the chapels are numerous, and sometimes overlap in an uncomfortable way. We could cite in bulk: liberalism, socialism, patriotisms and most -isms. The beliefs and interpretations of the diverse world such as Big pharma and health policy, the technology that would allow us to always find a solution, our body which - healthy and natural - would be stronger than anything, the right to consume which would be proof of freedom and success, the welfare state, private companies without ethics, nature which should and could be tamed, the couple and the family which would be the foundation of our society, we who would all be free, mathematics, the Swiss history, etc.

We try to make our pyramid bigger or more beautiful than others, we go to war with neighboring cathedrals because they don't fit the aesthetics of our world, and we despise simpler, smaller, less solid.

When we use the answers to our questions as bricks in a pyramid of our own, our view of the world becomes rigid, we fall into quarrels between opposing camps, value judgments and misunderstandings.

How to reconcile the pyramids of “freedom to dispose of one’s body”, that of “distrust of pharmaceutical companies”, that of “solidarity with the weakest”, and that of “trust in science” in the actual world ? Too many try to do this by consolidating their own odds and ends, and trying to crack those of others; the clash of the pyramids is then merciless, while being doomed to failure.

Given their rigidity, there is a great risk that if they are too damaged, our monuments will collapse. We then hastily rebuild another one, or we take refuge in a nearby cathedral (religions and sects are well versed in this emergency welcome).

It is also possible that we can no longer find a construction that seems beautiful and solid enough to us, and then we start to wander, more or less long, in our field of ruins.

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— Carlos Osegueda Fri May 24 07:59:34 +0000 2019

The field of ruins

By dint of working only on its own pyramid, constantly repairing it without calling it into question, there are cases where a pyramid has cracked too much, and that she ends up collapsing. This is the case if too many elements that were erected in truth turned out to be false (a vaccine will get us out of the pandemic, disinfecting your hands is more useful than wearing a mask), or if the stones were stacked in such a way too unstable over time (for example by denying the reality of the climate crisis).

Until the fallen stones can be reused to build a new knowledge system monument, or until we find refuge in another system, then we are facing a battlefield in ruins.

In this dark landscape wander the specters of our knowledge that has lost its meaning. We painfully complete our moaning certainties. Some are no longer able to leave this moral Waterloo. Disillusion gave way to cynicism and resentment. As soon as someone begins to rebuild something, we destroy it with sarcasm, or we flee its hospitality. We sometimes go so far as to erect this destructive doubt into a “non-conformist” banner of which we simulate pride.

If, as Socrates said, doubt is the beginning of wisdom, it is nevertheless not the end. Because on the ruins of the collapsed stones of our convictions, we must succeed in recreating something new about the answers we have left, and looking for new ones.

The extraordinary garden

The big mistake we make by thinking in terms of bricks, pyramids and monuments is that we manage our answers and our knowledge as if they were set in stone. While the answers vary over time, are partial, combine with others, and are only relevant in certain places and times.

Rather than a pyramidal knowledge, we must think of our answers as the more or less fleeting elements of a marvelous garden. Some are rooted and sturdy like century-old trees, others are fragile and delicate annual flowers, some are vigorous climbing vines, others are ancient ferns that hide other plants under their leaves.

We must learn to manage the answers we get with fluidity, to find their place in the shifting ecosystem of our knowledge. We have to accept answers that have momentary meaning, like some flowers are present in spring and absent in winter, without being less real.

While we know that a healthy life strengthens the immune system, this does not mean that it makes us immune to all diseases, in the same way that the indigenous civilizations of South America did not. did not resist the viruses brought by the conquistadors during colonization. If the pharmaceutical industry has clear profitability objectives, this does not mean that the related research is bad. If the effect of a vaccine has proven to be excellent on a given variant, this does not mean that it will be so for all. If a solution has proven to be adequate in a given country, this does not mean that it is suitable for others. If one study contradicts the results of another, it does not mean that the first was done poorly. If an actor made a mistake once, that does not mean that he will make a mistake every time, and vice versa for an actor who once found an adequate solution. If some people agree to be vaccinated, this does not mean that they all do it for the same reason, nor that this reason is valid for all.

We have to act as gardeners, associate the right species, maintain the soil, water, sometimes clear brush and provide a little light. We must dare to let certain surfaces fall freely and observe what grows there, just as we can take the time to carefully prune a magnificent floral bed. Sometimes the wind brings us unknown seeds, and rather than immediately pulling them out like weeds, we can let them take their place and participate in the biodiversity of the garden. Some plants need a stake to better deliver their fruits, others must be pruned to maintain their vigor from year to year. And what worked well one year will not work the next. We can learn by observing, and have confidence in the cycle of the seasons.

In short, we must succeed in understanding today's world in all its complexity, sometimes finding answers to questions that we had not yet asked ourselves, and looking for how different plants can cohabit to give an image overall richer, rather than weeding out all the excess and fertilizing only what we consider beautiful.

This work, sometimes tedious, sometimes demoralizing, but most often so fascinating, will allow us to find our place in the extraordinary garden that the world offers us, and we will also be part of this cycle whose parameters we do not control. For this, we need curiosity, patience, care and openness. Plants do not grow on the smooth seams of a marble monument. Sometimes we have to dare to let our certainties collapse, to better replant afterwards, while leaving the necessary time.

We must learn to trust the smile and calloused hands of the gardener as much as the visionary plans of the architect and engineer. We must learn to question, and above all to do something with all the answers collected. Hoping the weather will be kind.

May 2022 make us gardeners, who will be able to use the ruins of our past certainties to better grow the seeds of our future ideas.